I 


:r  ■ 


ANTI-SLAVERY   DAYS. 


A    SKETCH     OF    THE    STRUGGLE    WHICH 

ENDED  IN  THE   ABOLITION    OF 

SLAVERY  IN  THE  UNITED 

STATES. 


By  JAMES  FREEMAN  CLARKE. 


Is  true  freedom  but  to  break 
Fetters  for  our  own  dear  sake, 
And,  with  leathern  hearts,  forget 
That  we  owe  mankind  a  debt  ? 
No  !  true  freedom  is  to  share 
All  the  chains  our  brothers  wear, 
And,  with  heart  and  hand,  to  be 
Earnest  to  make  others  free 

Lowell. 


NEW  YORK: 
R.  WORTHINGTON,   770  BROADWAY. 

1884 


Ef4i 


Copyright,  1883,  by 
JOHN  W.  LOVELL  COMPANY, 


DEDICATION 


TO  THE   MEMORY  OF 

ELLIS    GRAY    LORING 

AND 

LOUISA    LORING; 

THE     WISE,    GENEROUS     AND    TRUE     FRIENDS     OF     EVERY   GOOE 
CAUSE, 
THESE   CHAPTERS   ARE   DEDICATED. 


ivii408S5 


TABLE  OF  CONTENTS. 


CHAPTER  L 

THE    ORIGIN     OF    THE    ANTI-SLAVERY    MOVEMENTS    IN    THE     UNITED 

STATES. 

Introduction.  Beginning  of  slavery  in  the  United  States.  England 
maintains  it  in  her  colonies.  Its  growth.  Its  character.  Early 
opposition  to  slavery.  John  Eliot.  Samuel  Sewall.  The  Quak- 
ers. John  Woolman.  Anthony  Benezet.  John  Wesley.  Sam- 
uel Hopkins.  Elias  Hicks.  Benjamin  Lundy.  Constitution  of 
Massachusetts,  1780.  Franklin  in  1787.  John  Jay.  Alexander 
Hamilton.  Jonathan  Edwards.  Thomas  Jefferson.  Their  testi- 
mony against  slavery.  Dane  ordinance  of  1787.  Constitution  of 
the  United  States  a  compromise.  Its  pro-slavery  provisions. 
Power  of  the  slaveholders.  Their  sense  of  danger.  Suddenly 
shown  at  the  time  of  the  Southampton  massacre  in  1831.  Slavery 
a  state  of  war.  Upright  and  honorable  slaveholders.  Anti-slav- 
ery sentiments  in  Kentucky  down  to  1840.  Anecdotes  illustrating 
this.  Old  and  new  courts  in  Kentucky.  Robert  J.  Breckenridge 
for  emancipation.  Duelling  in  the  slave  states.  Rowan  and  Mar- 
shall. Views  of  Henry  Clay.  Families  separated.  Beginning 
of  the  Garrison  movement,  1832.  Character  of  Garrison.  Mobs. 
Samuel  J.  May.  Burning  of  Pennsylvania  Hall.  Activity  of  the 
abolitionists.     Colonization  society.       .  ....      9 


CHAPTER  II. 

THE  FIGHT  IN  CONGRESS. 

Early  debates  in  Congress  concerning  slavery.  George  Thacher. 
Josiah  Quincy.  The  Missouri  compromise  in  1820.  Successive 
victories  of  the  slave-power.  Tristram  Burgess.  The  real  strug- 
gle begins  in  1835,  for  tne  abolition  of  slavery  in  the  District  of 
Columbia.  John  Quincy  Adams.  Anecdote  of  Felix  Grundy  and 
Governor  Poindexter.     Career  of  John  Quincy  Adams.    Anec- 


4  CONTENTS. 

dote  of  Josiah  Quincy  and  Dr.  Freeman.  The  Gag-Law  in  Con- 
gress. Remarkable  debate  in  February,  1837.  Mr.  Adams  stands 
almost  alone  against  the  slave-power  in  Congress,  and  conquers. 
Supported  by  Joshua  R.  Giddings.  His  career  and  character. 
Case  of  the  Creole.  Mr.  Adams  presents  a  petition  for  the  disso- 
lution of  the  Union.  Scene  on  this  occasion.  John  P.  Hale. 
Anecdote  of  a  passage  between  him  and  Henry  Clay.  Gamaliel 
Bailey,  editor  of  the  "  National  Era."  Meetings  at  his  house. 
The  Prigg  case.  Admission  of  Arkansas  in  1836.  Florida  war. 
Case  of  Samuel  Hoar.  Annexation  of  Texas.  War  with  Mex- 
ico. Wilmot  proviso.  Compromises  of  1850.  Repeal  of  the 
Missouri  compromise.  Stephen  A.  Douglas  and  Squatter  Sov- 
ereignty  39 

CHAPTER  III. 

ABOLITIONISTS  AND  FUGITIVE  SLAVES. 

Recapitulation  of  the  successive  triumphs  of  the  slave-power.  In- 
creased activity  of  the  abolitionists.  Their  methods.  Their  meet- 
ings described.  Anecdotes  of  Stephen  Foster  and  Charles  Bur- 
leigh. Fun  in  the  anti-slavery  meetings.  Leading  abolitionists. 
Samuel  J.  May  described.  Underground  railroad.  The  black 
woman  Moses.  Fugitive  slaves  and  their  friends.  Susan  Hil- 
lard.  William  and  Ellen  Crafts.  Anecdote  of  Mr.  Booth,  a  Ken- 
tucky slaveholder.  United  States  Marshal  Barnes,  and  his 
methods.  General  Devens  paying  the  ransom  for  Burns.  Story 
of  Father  Henson.  The  fugitive  from  Alabama  in  the  Ohio  peni- 
tentiary. Box  Brown.  Edward  Davis.  Mr.  May's  stories  of 
fugitives.  The  higher  law.  Free  colored  people  in  Cincinnati 
and  elsewhere 69 


CHAPTER  IV. 

FRIENDS  AND  OPPOSERS  OF  THE  ANTI-SLAVERY  MOVEMENT. 

Northern  opposers  of  the  abolitionists,  and  their  motives.  The  ter- 
rible evils  of  slavery  as  seen  by  the  abolitionists.  Theodore  D. 
Weld's  "  American  Slavery  As  It  Is."  Olmstead's  travels  in  the 
southwest.  Extracts  from  "  Laws  relating  to  Slavery,"  by  Geo. 
W.  Stroud.  Case  of  Prudence  Crandall.  She  is  obliged  to  close 
her  school  for  colored  girls.  Governor  Everett's  message.  Hear- 
ing given  to  the  abolitionists  by  a  committee  of  the  legislature. 
Their  treatment  by  Mr.  Lunt.  Dr.  Channing's  appearance  on 
this  occasion.  Alton  mob  and  murder  of  Lovejoy.  The  meeting 
in  Faneuil  Hall.  First  appearanee  of  Wendell  Phillips.  James 
T.  Austin.  Dr.  Nehemiah  Adams,  and  his  "  South-side  View  of 
Slavery."  Incident  at  Old  Fort  Plantation.  Northern  ladies 
who  have  taught  the  colored  children.  Dr.  Lord  of  Dartmouth 
College,  and  his  pamphlets  in  defence  of  slavery.  Bishop  Hop- 
kins also  defends  slavery.  His  curious  argument.  Mr.  Buchanan 
and  Mr.  Cass.  Anecdote  of  an  anti-slavery  speaker  in  Pennsyl- 
vania. Other  opponents  of  anti-slavery  at  the  North.  Its 
defenders.       Robert     Rantoul.       Anecdote    of    John    Quincy 


CONTENTS.  c. 

Adams,  by  Captain  Boutelle.  The  Latimer  petition.  Anecdote 
of  Wendell  Phillips  in  New  Hampshire.  Early  anti-slavery 
men  and  women.  Whittier's  portrait  gallery.  Character  of  the 
abolitionists. .98 

CHAPTER  V. 

ANTI-SLAVERY  IN    POLITICS. 

Three  political  parties.  Liberty  party,  Free-Soil  party,  Republican 
partv.  The  Garrisonians  become  Disunionists.  Their  method 
in  tSiis  a  mistake,  though  the  moral  influence  of  their  teaching 
most  important.  Anti-slavery  clergymen.  Dr.  Channing.  John 
G.  Palfrey.  Theodore  Parker,  His  speech  in  opposition  to  the 
Mexican  war.  Henry  Ward  Beecher.  Compromise  of  1850. 
Daniel  Webster  and  his  seventh  of  March  speech.  Defence  by 
his  friends.  This  defence  examined.  Great  disappointment  of 
the  anti-slavery  admirers  of  Daniel  Webster.  Dark  days  of  1850. 
Uncle  Tom's  Cabin  published.  Its  great  influence.  Arrests  of 
fugitives  at  the  North,  under  the  new  law.  Reminiscences  of 
Austin  Bearse.  Story  of  Octave  Johnson.  John  Brown  at  Har- 
per's Ferry.  My  meeting  him  in  Boston,  and  his  account  of  his 
purpose.     His  interview  with  Charles  Sumner 127 

CHAPTER  VI. 

THE  COMBAT  DEEPENS. 

Futility  of  the  compromises  of  1850.  The  struggle  renewed.  New 
victories  of  the  slave-power.  Election  of  Pierce  in  1852,  of  Bu- 
chanan in  1856.  Their  subservience  to  the  slave-power.  The 
phrase  "dough-face."  Repeal  of  the  Missouri  compromise,  May, 
1854.  Struggle  in  Kansas,  1854.  Kansas  invaded  by  the  people 
of  Missouri.  Polls  taken  possession  of.  Free-state  settlers  mur- 
dered. Pierce  and  Buchanan  take  sides  with  the  border  ruffians. 
Charles  Sumner  assaulted  in  the  Senate  by  Brooks,  May,  1856. 
Results.  John  Brown  of  Osawatomie.  Dred  Scott  decision, 
March,  1857,  Victims  of  the  fugitive  slave  law.  More  anti-slav- 
ery men  in  Congress.  Chase,  Giddings,  Horace  Mann,  Grant, 
Smith.  Fremont's  vote  in  1856.  Lincoln  elected  in  i860.  Slave- 
holders determined  to  secede.  Their  folly  in  this  act.  Demands 
of  the  Republican  party.  "  Cotton  is  King."  The  sine  qu&  non 
of  the  slave-power.  Douglas  opposes  it.  Attempts  at  new  con- 
cessions to  prevent  secession.  Southern  members  of  Congress 
resign  and  the  states  secede.  Attack  on  Fort  Sumter.  Rising  of 
the  North.     Civil  war  begins. 158 

CHAPTER  VII. 

CIVIL  WAR  AND  END  OF  SLAVERY. 

Character  of  Abraham  Lincoln.  A  man  specially  adapted  to  the 
needs  of  the  hour.     Anecdote   concerning  him  told  by  Joshua 


CONTENTS. 

Speed.  Lincoln's  call  for  7  5, coo  men.  First  successes  of  the 
Confederates.  The  aristocracy  of  England  takes  side^vith  them. 
Its  working  people  stand  by  the  North.  Charles  Francis  Adams. 
Great  uprising  at  the  North.  All  parties  unite  to  resist  secession. 
Immense  efforts  of  the  Northern  people.  National  Banks.  San- 
itary commission  and  Christian  commission.  The  nation  falsifies 
all  predictions  of  evil.  Power  of  the  North  in  its  free  institutions. 
Providential  events.  Anecdotes  of  Lincoln's  humanity.  Lincoln 
and  Sumner.  Lincoln  and  Doctor  Bellows.  Lowell's  lines  on 
Lincoln.  Grant's  victory  at  Fort  Henry.  Naval  battles. 
The  Merrimac  and  Monitor.  The  proclamation  of  Emancipa- 
tion. Foreseen  by  John  Quincy  Adams.  John  A.  Andrew  urges 
the  employment  of  colored  troops.  Character  of  Governor  An- 
drew. Turn  of  the  tide  in  favor  of  the  Union.  Capture  of  Vicks- 
burg.  Gettysburg.  Sherman's  march  to  the  sea.  End  of  the 
war.  Providential  events.  The  wages  of  colored  soldiers.  Gov- 
ernor Andrew's  interest  in  having  justice  done  to  them.  Joy  at 
the  return  of  peace.  Satisfaction  at  the  South  at  the  end  of  slav- 
ery. Facts  to  show  the  improvement  of  the  colored  people. 
Lines  from  Lowell.  187 


INTRODUCTION. 


The  following  brief  sketch  of  the  conflict  which 
led  to  the  emancipation  of  four  millions  of  slaves  in 
the  .United  States,  is  intended  chiefly  for  the  genera- 
tion which  has  grown  up  since  those  stirring  scenes. 
They  are,  naturally,  for  the  most  part,  little  ac- 
quainted with  it.  Recent  history  is  that  ot  which 
people  know  the  least,  with  the  exception  of  those 
who  have  taken  part  in  it.  Children  are  taught  in 
the  schools  about  the  battle  of  Marathon,  but  not 
about  the  battle  of  Gettysburg.  They  learn  in  the 
Sunday-Schools  all  about  the  emancipation  of  the 
Hebrews  from  Egyptian  slavery,  but  very  little  about 
that  of  the  colored  people  in  the  United  States.  Yet 
this  story,  when  it  comes  to  be  fitly  told,  will  be 
found  as  intensely  interesting  as  any  series  of  events 
in  the  records  of  mankind.  -  I  do  not  hope  to  do  more 
in  these  chapters  (originally  given  as  lectures)  than 
to  call  attention  to  a  few  important  events  and  char* 
acters  belonging  to  the  period  described. 


6  INTRODUCTION. 

The  hot  passions  of  that  time  have  now  grown 
cool.  The  people  engaged  in  that  conflict  can  un- 
derstand each  other  better.  We,  of  the  North,  can 
see  more  clearly  the  difficulties  under  which  the  slave- 
owners labored.  Slavery  spread  like  an  iron  network 
over  their  society — it  was  connected  with  all  their 
habits  and  interests.  They  did  not  see  how  it  was 
possible  to  emancipate  their  slaves  without  rending 
asunder  the  whole  fabric  of  their  society.  And  if 
they  did  not  decide  to  plunge  into  the  unknown 
dangers  and  terrors  of  emancipation,  they  were  com- 
pelled, by  an  inexorable  logic,  to  bind  the  chains  of 
their  slaves  tighter  day  by  day,  and  to  resist,  by  every 
possible  means,  everything  which  disturbed  their  per- 
fect submission  and  entire  docility.  The  aggressions 
of  the  slave-power,  which  finally  drove  the  North  into 
the  anti-slavery  movement,  seemed  to  the  slaveholders 
necessary  measures  of  defence.  In  their  determina- 
tion not  to  yield,  they  seized  every  weapon  which 
came  in  their  way.  Their  determined  and  compact 
purpose  gained  them  so  many  successes,  that  at  last 
they  took  the  fatal  leap  which  ended  in  the  destruction 
of  the  whole  evil  system,  and  the  coming  of  a  better 
day. 

And  now  the  South  and  the  North  are  both  agreed 
that  emancipation  was  the  greatest  of  blessings. 
Now  a  new  prosperity,  solid  and  increasing,  has  taken 
the  place  of  the  old  in  all  the  Southern  States.     Now 


INTRODUCTION.  y 

the  North  and  South  are  really  one,  as  they  never 
were  before  the  war.  Now  we  have  a  common  coun- 
try, united  interests,  the  same  ends.  Now  we  can  af- 
ford to  retrace  that  period  of  tempestuous  struggle, 
endeavoring  to  do  justice  to  both  contending  parties. 
Now  we  have  in  reality,  and  not  in  mere  words, 
"  Union  and  Freedom,  now  and  forever,  one  and  in- 
separable." The  terrible  war  came  like  the  thunder 
storm,  purifying  the  air,  and  leaving  such  a  blessing 
behind  it  as  no  war  before  ever  did,  enabling  us  to 
use  sincerely  the  great  words  of  Lowell  : — 

O  beautiful !    My  country!     Ours  once  more  ! 

Smoothing  thy  gold  of  war-dishevelled  hair 

O'er  such  sweet  brows  as  never  other  wore, — 

And  letting  thy  set  lips, 

Freed  from  war's  pale  eclipse, 

The  rosy  edges  of  their  smile  lay  bare . 

What  were  our  lives  without  thee  ? 

What  all  our  lives  to  save  thee  ? 

We  reck  not  what  we  gave  thee  ; 

We  do  not  dare  to  doubt  thee. 

But  ask  whatever  else  and  we  will  dare. 

In  these  imperfect  narrations  I  have  naturally 
dwelt  mostly  on  the  events  with  which  I  was  per- 
sonally familiar,  and  the  persons  with  whom  I  hap- 
pened to  be  best  acquainted.  I  have  therefore  con- 
fined my  relation  within  narrower  limits  than  would 
be  proper  in  anything  claiming  to  be  a  history.  The 
scenes  of  the  drama  which  I  describe  are  chiefly  laid 
in  Massachusetts,  and  the  characters  are  New  Eng- 
land men.     I  have  given  the  view  taken  by  this  class 


8  INTRODUCTIONS 

of  actors,  and  have  only  hinted  at  the  way  in  which 
men  felt  and  thought  in  other  sections  of  the  coun* 
try.  This  little  work  is,  therefore,  only  one  contri- 
bution to  the  future  history  of  those  days — one  of  the 
°  Memoires  pour  servir  "  for  the  more  complete  work 
which  is  to  be  written  hereafter. 


ANTI-SLAVERY   DAYS. 


CHAPTER  I. 

ORIGIN   OF   ANTI-SLAVERY   IN   THE   UNITED   STATES. 

"  If  we  have  whispered  truth, 
Whisper  no  longer; 
Speak  as  the  trumpet  does, 
Sterner  and  stronger." 

— Whittier. 

I  propose  in  this  work  to  give  a  brief  sketch  of 
the  greatest  moral  conflict  of  modern  times.  We 
shall  see  how  an  immense  institution,  fortified  by  law, 
solidly  bound  together  by  pecuniary  interests,  upheld 
by  political  combinations,  sustained  by  custom, 
fashion,  prejudice,  and  the  fear  of  change,  was  at- 
tacked by  a  few  men  whose  only  weapon  was  a  per- 
petual appeal  to  the  human  reason,  the  human 
conscience,  and  the  human  heart.  We  shall  see  in 
what  way  this  attack  was  resisted  ;  how  the  institu- 
tion gathered  more  and  more  power  ;  gained  the  alli- 
ance of  the  two  great  political  parties :  annexed 
vast   territories  and  opened   them  to   slavery ;  took 


j  o  ,  '  :  :  .  •  AiYTl^SLA  VER  Y  DA  YS. 

possession  of  Congress,  the  Presidency,  the  Supreme 
Court  of  the  United  States,  and  by  a  series  of  Acts 
of  Congress  seemed  to  have  entrenched  itself  against 
all  assaults,  and  become  stronger  than  ever  before 
We  shall  see  how,  while  this  political  power  was  pass- 
ing into  the  hands  of  slaveholders,  the  moral  power 
of  the  country  was  steadily  accumulating  in  those  of 
their  opponents,  until  at  last  the  war  of  tongue  and 
pen  changed  into  the  greatest  military  struggle  of 
modern  times  We  shall  hear  the  first  Southern  gun 
fired  at  Fort  Sumter,  and  see  the  people  of  the  North 
uniting  as  one  man  to  put  down  the  rebellion  ;  vast 
armies  springing  as  if  born  out  of  the  earth ;  great  navies 
organized  to  blockade  the  long  coast  line  of  the  South  ; 
and  shall  glance  at  some  events  in  the  terrible  war  of 
four  years,  from  the  bombardment  of  Sumter,  April 
1 2th,  1 86 1,  to  the  surrender  of  Lee,  April  9th,  1865. 
We  shall  see  how  slavery  went  down  in  that  dreadful 
conflict,  never  to  rise  again — how,  in  a  single  genera- 
tion, and  in  the  lifetime  of  the  chief  agitator  himself, 
this  vast  revolution  was  accomplished.  Never  in 
human  history  has  there  been  such  an  example  of 
the  power  of  conscience  in  gaining  a  victory  over 
worldly  interest  ;  and  it  ought  to  be  an  encourage- 
ment forever,  for  all  who  contend  for  lowly  right 
against  triumphant  wrong,  for  unpopular  truth  against 
fashion,  prejudice  and  power. 

It  is  nearly  eighteen  years  since  these  events  came 


/ 


ANTI-SLA  VER  Y  DA  YS.  1 1 

to  an  end.  The  passions  of  men  have  cooled,  a  new 
South  has  sprung  from  the  ruins  of  the  old,  another 
generation  has  come  upon  the  stage.  The  North  and 
South  are  truly  one ;  the  American  Union,  this  single 
root  of  bitterness  having  been  taken  away,  is  vastly 
more  powerful,  and  more  united,  than  ever.  We  can 
now  speak  I  trust,  without  prejudice  or  severity  of 
those  who  differed  from  us  or  from  whom  we  differed. 
Though  we  may  still  think  they  were  wrong,  we  can 
see  how  their  conduct  may  have  seemed  to  them  right, 
or,  at  least,  how  it  was  natural  for  them  to  think  so, 
under  their  circumstances. 

The  seeds  of  freedom  and  of  slavery  were  planted 
in  this  country  in  the  same  year.  In  1620  the  May 
Flower  brought  the  Pilgrim  Fathers  to  Plymouth  ;  in 
1620  a  Dutch  ship  entered  James  River  in  Virginia 
with  twenty  African  slaves.  One  of  these  ships 
brought  free  institutions  to  our  shores  ;  the  other 
brought  slavery.  From  that  time  until  the  beginning 
of  the  American  Revolution  the  whole  power  of  Eng- 
land supported  and  encouraged  the  African  slave 
trade.  *  Under  that  encouragement  more  than  300,. 
000  African  slaves  were  imported  into  thirteen  British 
colonies.  Alarmed  by  the  rapid  increase  of  slaves 
the  planters  of  Virginia,  in  1 726,  levied  a  tax  on  their 
importation,  and  South  Carolina  did  the  same  in  1 760. 
The  legislature  of  Pennsylvania  in  17 12  had  passed  a 
similar  act.     Massachusetts  endeavored  to  abolish  the 


I  2  A  NTI-SLA  VER  V  DA  VS. 

slave  trade  in  1771  and  1774  by  act  of  legislature. 
All  of  these  colonial  acts  were  vetoed  by  the  authority 
of  the  British  crown.  The  prosperity  of  England  was 
thought  to  be  involved  in  maintaining  the  slave  trade  ; 
and  the  mother  country  steadily  refused  all  attempts 
of  the  colonists  to  prohibit  it.  Thus  the  evil  gradually 
extended  itself,  and  became  rooted  in  the  habits  of 
the  people,  and  especially  in  the  Southern  States. 
Love  of  power,  love  of  money,  and  love  of  ease,  all 
were  enlisted  on  its  side.  And  when  by  discovery 
of  the  cotton-gin,  Eli  Whitney/  made  slavery  a  source 
of  great  wealth,  it  became  dangerous  to  speak  against 
it  in  the  cotton-growing  states. 

There  were  however,  always  those  who  saw  and 
proclaimed  the  sin  and  evil  of  holding  a  man  as  a 
slave.  By  the  laws  of  slavery,  in  this  country,  a  man 
was  turned  into  a  thing  ;  he  had  no  rights  ;  he  could 
be  bought  and  sold  like  a  horse  or  an  ox  ;  he  could  be 
torn  from  his  wife  and  children,  or  they  could  be  taken 
from  him  whenever  the  owner  pleased.  In  the  hands 
of  a  cruel  master,  he  could  be  beaten  to  death,  or 
burned  alive,  and  no  power  could  prevent  it.  He 
might  have  so  little  negro  blood  as  to  pass  for  a  white 
man,  but  as  long  as  his  mother  was  a  slave,  he  was  a 
slave  too.  Young  girls,  even  those  almost  white 
might  be  sold  at  their  master's  will  to  any  one  who 
wished  to  buy  them  ;  and  they  had  no  safety,  no  pro- 
L  *  Aided  in  this  invention  by  the  widow  of  Gen.  Greene. 


ANTI-SLA  VER  Y  DA  YS.  1 3 

tection.  The  possession  of  absolute  power  often  seems 
to  make  fiends  of  men,  and  that  most  fiendish  of  all 
sins,  cruelty,  grew  and  flourished  in  those  whose 
power  over  their  slaves  was  unrestrained  by  conscience 
or  religion. 

It  seemed  impossible  that  any  thoughtful  person 
could  believe  such  an  institution  as  this  to  be  right. 
It  took  from  the  slave  all  his  rights  at  one  blow — it 
left  him  nothing.  Christianity  said,  "  Do  to  others  as 
you  would  have  them  do  to  you,"  and  "  Love  your 
neighbor  as  yourself."  The  declaration  of  Indepen- 
dence, the  organic  law  of  our  Union,  standing  above 
the  Constitution  itself,  begins — "  We  hold  these  truths 
to  be  self-evident,  that  all  men  were  made  equal,  and 
are  created  by  their  Creator  with  inalienable  rights, 
among  which  are  life,  liberty,  and  the  pursuit  of  hap- 
piness." How  reconcile  slavery  with  these  great  laws 
of  God  and  man  ?  Very  early,  therefore,  there  was 
opposition  made  to  slavery — an  opposition  founded  on 
moral,  religious,  social,  and  political  reasons,  The 
apostle  Jokn  Eliot,  in  1675,  presented  a  memorial 
against  the  slavery  of  Indians  and  others  to  the  Col- 
onial Legislature  of  Massachusetts.  Judge  Samuel 
Sewally  of  Boston,  in  1700,  printed  a  pamphlet  against 
negro  slavery. 

The  body  of  Quakers  early  agitated  the  question. 
Many  eminent  Friends  gave  their  testimony  against 
slavery.     John  Wool  man,  praised  by   Charles  Lamb. 


1 4  ANT/SLA  VER  Y  DA  YS. 

travelled  through  the  Middle  and  Southern  States  be- 
tween 17/.6  and  1767,  and  everywhere  told  the  Friends 
that  the  practice  of  slavery  was  not  right.  He  said 
that  wherever  slavery  prevailed  "  he  saw  a  dark  gloom- 
iness overhanging  the  land,  and  the  spirit  of  fierceness 
and  love  of  dominion  in  the  people.'' 

Anthony  Benezet,  the  Huguenot ;  Elias  Hicks, 
founder  of  the  Hicksite  sect  of  Quakers ;  Benjamin 
Lundy,  the  teacher  of  Garrison,  uttered  their  protests 
against  the  system,  ind  devoted  their  lives  to  point- 
ing out  its  evils.  John  Wesley,  who  saw  it  in  Georgia, 
called  it  "  the  sum  of  all  villanies."  Dr.  Samuel  Hop- 
kins, of  Newport  R.I.,  a  place  which  was  in  his  time 
the  very  seat  of  the  slave  trade,  preached,  in  the  year 
1770,  against  that  trade,  and  against  the  holding  of 
slaves,  to  a  congregation  engaged  in  that  business. 
And  there  have  been  few  greater  examples  of  heroism 
in  the  pulpit  than  was  shown  by  him  on  that  occa- 
sion. 

The  Constitution  of  Massachusetts  was  adopted  in 
1780,  before  the  end  of  the  revolutionary  war,  and  its 
Bill  of  Rights  declares  that  all  men  are  born  free  and 
equal.  The  Supreme  Court  of  Massachusetts,  by  the 
voice  of  Judge  Lowell,  decided  that  this  declaration 
abolished  slavery  in  Massachusetts  forever.  By  that 
decision,  all  the  slaves  at  that  time  held  in  Massachu- 
setts became  free.  The  system  had,  however,  never 
been  oppressive  in  Massachusetts.     It  was  tempered 


ANTI-SLA  VER  V  DA  VS.  T  5 

by  the  principles  and  by  the  habits  of  the  people. 
Slaves  in  New  England,  generally,  were  regarded  as 
members  of  the  household.  They  lived  with  the 
family  and  were  treated  as  belonging  to  it,  and  after 
they  were  free  they  usually  continued  to  live  as  be. 
fore,  working  for  the  family  and  being  taken  care  of- 
These  former  slaves  were  thus  provided  for  until  their 
death.  I,  myself,  remember  seeing,  when  I  was  a 
boy,  some  of  those  old  colored  men  and  women  in 
several  families.  I  recollect  an  old  woman  called 
Phcebe,  who  used  to  sit  by  the  kitchen  fire  in  the 
family  of  my  uncle  Williams,  and  there  was  another, 
old  Tillo  as  he  was  called,  in  the  family  of  my  grand- 
father Hull.  He  considered  himself  always  as  much 
a  member  of  the  household  as  any  of  the  children  or 
grandchildren. 

The  first  abolition  society  in  this  country  was 
formed  in  Pennsylvania,  and  Franklin  became  its 
President  in  1787.  The  New  York  Abolition  Society 
was  founded  in  1785.  Chief-Justice  John  Jay  was  its 
first  President,  and  Alexander  Hamilton  was  its  Sec- 
retary. In  1 791,  Jonathan  Edwards,  Jr.,  declared  that 
to  hold  a  man  as  a  slave  is  man-stealing,  and  a  great 
sin  in  the  sight  of  God.  We  all  remember  the  senti- 
ments of  President  Jefferson  on  this  Subject.  We 
know  how,  in  his  "  Notes  on  Virginia,"  he  described 
the  evil  effects  of  slave-holding  on  the  manners  and 
morals  of  the  people,  and  especially  on  the  young,  who, 


16  ANTI-SLA  VER  Y  DA  VS. 

from  the  very  hours  of  childhood,  formed  habits  of 
violent,  arbitrary  and  wilful  conduct.  He  foresaw 
that  the  time  must  come  in  which  there  would  be  a 
conflict  between  slavery  and  freedom,  "And  in  such  a 
conflict  as  this,"  said  he  "  God  has  no  attribute  which 
can  take  part  with  the  slaveholders."  "  I  tremble  for 
my  country  when  I  remember  that  God  is  just." 

In  the  year  1787,  in  the  first  continental  Congress, 
there  was  passed  an  ordinance,  brought  forward  by 
Nathan  Dane,  of  Massachusetts,  prohibiting  all  slavery 
north  and  west  of  the  Ohio.  By  this  ordinance,  Ohio, 
Indiana  and  Illinois  were  saved  from  slavery  for  free- 
dom. The  inhabitants  of  Indiana,  headed  by  Wm. 
H.  Harrison,  petitioned  Congress  to  be  allowed  to 
have  that  ordinance  suspended  for  a  short  time  so 
that  they  might  have  the  use  of  slaves  in  opening  the 
country.  Many  of  them  had  emigrated  from  Kentucky 
and  were  accustomed  to  slavery.  But  Congress  again 
and  again  refused  consent  to  their  petition,  and  the 
slaveholders  in  Congress — such  men  as  John  Ran- 
dolph taking  the  lead — were  among  the  first  to  de- 
clare that  it  would  be  a  great  evil  to  allow  slavery  to 
invade  that  territory. 

There  were  formerly  two  opposing  sentiments  at 
the  South  on  this  question.  One  party  held  that 
slavery  was  wrong ;  that  it  was  an  evil,  and  that  it 
must  gradually  disappear ;  that  it  must  by  degrees 
come  to  an  end.     The  other  maintained  that  slavery 


ANTI-SLA  VER  Y  DA  VS.  1 7 

was  profitable,  that  it  gave  power  to  the  South ;  that 
it  prevented  the  necessity  of  white  labor ;  and,  there- 
fore, that  it  must  be  retained,  and,  if  necessary,  ex- 
tended. Both  these  sentiments  found  their  way  into 
the  Constitution.  To  please  one  party,  the  words 
"  slave  ''  and  "  slavery  >;  are  not. mentioned  in  that  in- 
strument. For  ■'  slaves  "  we  have  the  euphemism, 
"  Persons  held  to  labor/'  and  "  all  other  persons." 
But  the  opposite  party  obtained  the  advantage«-6f 
having  three  provisions  inserted  in  the  Constitution, 
the  first  and  most  important  ot  which  was  that  three- 
fifths  of  the  slaves  were  to  be  counted  as  voters,  so 
that  the  slaveowners  were  allowed  to  vote  not  only 
for  themselves,  but  also  for  their  property.  Many  of 
the  most  important  successes  of  the  slave-power  after- 
ward were  owing  to  that  undue  advantage  which  they 
obtained  by  this  constitutional  provision. 

The  second  advantage  gained  by  the  slave-holding 
interest  was  that  the  importation  of  slaves  was  allowed 
until  the  year  1800.  Those  thus  imported,  however, 
are  not  called  slaves,  but "  such  persons  as  any  of  the 
States  now  existing  shall  think  proper  to  admit." 
This  was  the  roundabout  way  in  which  it  was  then 
considered  decent  to  speak  of  slavery. 

The  third  provision  in  tlje  Constitution  for  main- 
taining slavery,  was  that  which  provided  £pr  the  return 
of  fugitives.  This  was  expressed  in  a  still  more  ob- 
scure way.     "  No  person  held  to  labor   or  service  in 


1 8  ANTI-SLA  VER  Y  DA  VS. 

one  State  under  the  laws  thereof,  escaping  into  an- 
other, shall  be  discharged  from  such  service  or  labor, 
but  shall  be  delivered  up  on  claim  of  the  party  to 
whom  such  labor  or  service  is  due."  Some  thought 
that  if  this  were  construed  grammatically,  it  declared 
(as  John  Quincy  Adams  once  pointed  out)  that  no 
such  refugees  should  be  returned.  It  was,  however, 
well  understood  that  that  was  by  no  means  the  inten- 
tion of  those  who  drew  up  the  Constitution,  and  it  was 
never  construed  according  to  the  rules  of  strict  gram- 
mar, but  in  precisely  the  opposite  way.  Many  of  the 
Abolitionists  claimed  that  the  Constitution  was  a  pro- 
slavery  instrument.  Those  who  belonged  to  the  polit- 
ical anti-slavery  parties  called  it  an  anti-slavery  in- 
strument. To  me  it  seems  that  both  were  right.  It 
was  a  pro-slavery  instrument,  and  also  an  anti-slavery 
instrument.     It  was  an  inconsistent  instrument. 

The  slaveholders  were  bound  together  by  the 
power  of  a  common  interest,  by  the  sense  of  a  common 
danger,  and  by  the  superior  discipline  of  will  which 
they  developed  from  their  position  as  masters  over 
people  wholly  subservient  to  their  will.  Down  to  the 
time  of  the  civil  war  they  were  continually  gaining 
more  and  more  strength  and  influence  in  the  general 
government.  Although  it  was  computed  that  there 
were  in  the  South  only  some  three  hundred  and  fifty 
or  four  hundred  thousand  slaveholders,  they  neverthe- 
less had  the  entire  control  of  the  Southern  States. 


ANTI-SLA  VER  Y  DA  VS.  I  g 

They  governed  nearly  five  million  non-slaveholders 
among  the  whites.  No  non-slaveholder  was  known 
to  be  sent  to  Congress,  ever  became  Governor  of  a 
Southern  state,  or  was  admitted  to  be  a  member  of  a 
Southern  legislature.  The  whole  of  the  Sou^h  was 
therefore  united  under  the  control  of  these  three  or 
four  hundred  thousand  slaveholders.  Having  crushed 
out  every  expression  of  dissent  at  home,  they  were 
able  to  govern  the  twenty-five  or  thirty  millions  of 
people  at  the  North,  by  compelling  both  political 
parties  to  submit  to  their  terms.  Going  on,  step  by 
step,  they  came  at  last  to  declare  that  slavery  was  not 
the  evil  their  fathers  had  called  it,  but  a  blessing  ;  that 
the  slaves  were  not  wretched  but  happy ;  that  slavery 
was  the  corner-stone  of  free  institutions ;  that  no 
republic  could  be  sustained  without  resting  on  slavery  • 
and  that  it  was  sanctioned  by  the  Bible  itself.  Yet 
all  this  time  an  inward  sense  of  danger  existed  in 
every  slaveholding  community.  There  were  two  ter- 
rors constantly  before  the  minds  of  Southern  families 
— the  dread  of  fire,  and  that  of  poison.  These  were 
the  two  weapons  which  the  slaves  had  in  their  hands. 
When  one  of  them  had  been  abused,  he  might  take 
his  revenge  on  those  who  had  wrought  the  wrong  by 
setting  fire  to  their  houses  or  by  putting  poison  into 
their  food.  I  lived  long  at  the  South,  and  know  that 
this  was  sometimes  the  case,  and  that  nobody  felt  se- 
cure from  these  two  dangers.     Yet  no  newspaper  was 


2  o  ANTI-SLA  VER  Y  DA  VS. 

ever  allowed  to  mention  it,  when  either  of  these  events 
occurred.  You  would  never  find  in  any  Southern 
paper  the  statement  that  a  building  had  been  burned 
by  slaves,  or  that  a  family  had  been  poisoned.  That 
was  kept  strictly  secret,  lest  it  might  become  an  ex- 
ample to  others. 

But  there  was  one  occasion  in  which  these  truths 
came  suddenly  to  light,  and  the  hidden  feelings  of  the 
South  were  developed.  It  was  when  the  Southampton 
massacre  occurred  in  183 1.  Nat  Turner,  a  slave,  a 
religious  enthusiast,  and,  indeed,  in  reality  a  half-crazy 
fanatic,  formed  a  conspiracy  to  murder  the  white  peo- 
ple and  to  give  the  power  to  the  slaves.  In  this  in- 
surrection some  sixty  of  the  whites  were  killed,  and 
then  the  rebellion  was  conquered,  and  many  of  the 
slaves  were  put  to  death.  In  the  next  Virginia  legis- 
lature there  was  an  outburst  of  feeling  against  slavery. 
One  member  called  slavery  "a  great  blighting  curse," 
and  said  "  many  a  brave  man,  who  will  readily  face 
death  in  battle,  has  felt  his  blood  chill,  lest  when  he 
went  home  at  night  he  should  find  only  the  murdered 
bodies  of  his  family."  Another  declared  that  slavery 
"  was  a  mildew  that  had  blighted  every  region  it  had 
touched  from  the  foundation  of  -the  world."  Another 
said,  "  I  thank  God  that  the  spell  is  broken,  and  that 
we  now,  for  the  first  time,  can  say  what  we  think.  If 
slavery  can  be  eradicated,  in  God's  name  let  us  put  an 
end  to  it."     Another  declared,    "  I  raise  my  voice  for 


ANTI-SLA  VER  Y  DA  YS.  2 1 

emancipation.  Tax  us  what  you  will.  Prove  us  in 
every  way :  but  let  us  get  rid  of  this  horrid  curse  of 
slavery."  In  reading  what  was  said  in  that  Virginia 
legislature  in  this  debate,  in  the  year  1831,  you  would 
have  thought  that  you  were  attending  a  meeting  of 
abolitionists.  Who  would  have  supposed  that  this 
same  State  of  Virginia,  in  thirty  years'  time,  would 
have  seceded  from  the  Union  in  order  to  defend  and 
preserve  this  very  institution  ? 

Abolitionists  have  stated  the  evils  of  slavery  very 
strongly,  but  they  never  have  been  overstated.  It  was 
a  condition  of  perpetual  warfare.  Not  only  were  un- 
told cruelties  inflicted  on  the  slaves  almost  as  a  matter 
of  necessity  ;  but  among  the  whites,  deeds  of  violence, 
duels,  street-shootings,  death  by  lynch  law,  mob  vio- 
lence, in  all  its  forms,  were  common.  The  young  men 
grew  up  in  the  midst  of  license  and  self-indulgences 
of  all  kinds.  It  is  true  there  were  those  who  main- 
tained their  virtue  ;  there  were  upright,  honorable 
pure  men  and  women  of  the  South  ;  there  were  those 
who  respected  the  laws  of  God  and  man  ;  and  they  de- 
served all  the  more  credit  for  acquiring  and  maintain- 
ing this  character  under  such  influences  as  those  to 
which  they  were  exposed.  There  were,  also,  mistresses 
and  masters  who  felt  a  responsiblity  for  the  care  and 
comfort  of  their  slaves,  and  who  devoted  themselves 
to  those  duties  in  the  most  praiseworthy  manner.  But 


2  2  ANTI-SLA  VER  Y  DA  VS. 

the  system  itself  was  so  evil  that  it  made  their  best 
efforts  almost  useless. 

I,  myself,  was  a  citizen  of  the  State  of  Kentucky 
from  1833  to  1840.  Slavery  existed  there,  it  is  true,  in 
a  comparatively  mild  form.  But  its  evils  were  such  that 
I  learned  to  look  on  it  with  unmixed  aversion.  I 
learned  my  anti-slavery  lessons  from  slavery  itself  and 
from  the  slaveholders  around  me.  At  that  time  I  knew 
nothing  of  Mr.  Garrison  or  his  movement,  and  when  I 
heard  of  him  I  supposed,  as  others  did,  that  he  was 
merely  a  violent  fanatic.  After  I  returned  to  Boston, 
in  1 84 1,  I  had  the  advantage  of  knowing  him  and  his 
fellow-laborers,  and  seeing  something  of  their  grand 
and  noble  work. 

But  the  sentiment  of  Kentucky,  in  those  days, 
among  all  the  better  class  of  people,  was  that  slavery 
was  a  wrong  and  an  evil,  and  that  it  ought  to  be  abol- 
ished. It  was  also  believed  that  Kentucky  would, 
when  the  time  came  for  altering  its  Constitution,  in- 
sert a  clause  in  the  new  Constitution  that  would  allow 
slavery  to  be  abolished. 

I  will  relate  one  or  two  anecdotes  to  show  the  feel- 
ing that  prevailed  at  that  time. 

A  young  man  from  Boston  called  one  day  upon  me 
in  Louisville.  He  was  a  member  of  one  of  the  very 
conservative  families  of  New  England,  who  believed 
that  abolition  was  a  fanatical  movement,  and  that  abo- 
litionists were  endangering  the  safety  of  the  Union. 


ANTI-SLA  VER  Y  DA  YS. 


23 


He  had  been  brought  up  with  these  sentiments.  I 
took  him  with  me  to  drive  into  the  country  to  visit 
some  of  the  plantations.  The  first  place  that  we  came 
to  was  the  residence  of  Judge  John  J.  Marshall,  who 
belonged  to  one  of  the  old  families  of  Virginia  and 
Kentucky.  Mrs.  Marshall  was  the  sister  of  John  G. 
Birney,  afterwards  candidate  of  the  Free-Soil  party  for 
President.  The  Marshalls  owned  slaves,  and  there 
were  a  great  many  little  negroes  about  the  house.  My 
Boston  friend,  seeing  he  was  among  slaveholders, 
thought  it  was  a  fitting  opportunity  for  him  to  say 
something  in  favor  of  the  institution.  "Mrs.  Mar- 
shall," said  he,  "  I  think  our  people  at  the  North  are 
very  much  mistaken  in  attacking  slavery  as  they  do. 
It  seems  to  me  there  is  nothing  so  very  bad  about  it." 
Mrs.  Marshall  replied,  "It  will  not  do,  sir,  to  defend 
slavery  in  this  family.  The  Marshalls  and  the  Birneys 
have  always  been  abolitionists."  He  was  a  little  sur- 
prised at  that  very  decided  statement,  coming  from 
slaveholders.  We  next  drove  to  the  house  of  my  dear 
old  friend,  Judge  John  Speed,  who  had  a  large  planta- 
tion and  fifty  or  sixty  slaves.  He  had  the  title  of 
judge,  not  because  he  had  ever  studied  law,  for  he  had 
had  very  little  opportunity  for  an  education.  But 
he  was  a  very  intelligent  man — a  man  who  had 
learned  much  by  thinking  and  by  observation.  It  was 
a  custom  at  that  time  in  Kentucky  to  appoint  one  or 
two  men,  whom  they  called  associate  judges,  not  law- 


2  4  ANTI-SLA  VER  Y  DA  VS. 

yers,  to  sit  on  the  bench  with  the  legal  judge,  in  order 
to  keep  him  from  indulging  in  the  supposed  quibbles 
of  the  law ;  and  Judge  Speed  had  been  one  of  these 
associate  judges. 

When  we  reached  his  house,  he  took  us  about  the 
plantation  and  showed  us  the  negro  cabins,  having  in 
them  various  little  comforts,  such  as  muslin  curtains 
in  the  windows,  pictures  on  the  walls,  or  here  and 
there  a  piece  of  mahogany  furniture.  My  friend  from 
Boston,  thinking,  no  doubt,  that  Mrs.  Marshall  was 
an  exceptional  person,  and  that  he  should  be  safe  this 
time  in  speaking  in  behalf  of  slavery,  said,  "  Judge,  I 
do  not  see  but  the  slaves  are  as  happy  as  our  laboring 
classes  at  the  North." 

"  Well,"  answered  the  Judge  "  I  do  the  best  I 
can  to  make  my  slaves  comfortable ;  but  I  tell  you 
what  it  is,  you  cannot  make  a  slave  happy,  do  what 
you  will.  God  Almighty  never  meant  a  man  to  be  a 
slave,  and  he  cannot  be  made  happy  while  he  is  a 
slave." 

You  may  be  sure  that  I  felt  proud  and  pleased 
with  my  Kentucky  friends. 

But  the  Boston  youth  continued.  "  But  what  can 
be  done  about  it,  sir  ?  They  are  not  able  to  take 
care  of  themselves,  if  they  were  free.  How  could  they 
manage  if  slavery  were  abolished  ? " 

"  I  think  I  could  show  you  three  men  on  my  plan- 
tation," replied  Judge  Speed,  "  who  might  go  to  the 


ANTI-SLA  VER  Y  DA  YS. 


25 


Kentucky  legistature  :  I  am  inclined  to  believe  they 
would  make  just  as  good  legislators  as  the  average 
men  that  you  find  there  now." 

In  Kentucky  in  those  days,  it  was  not  considered 
at  all  improper  for  a  man  to  ayow  anti-slavery  senti- 
ments. I  recollect  we  had  a  discussion  in  Louisville, 
which  lasted  three  nights,  in  which  we  debated  the 
whole  question  of  slavery  ;  one  side  maintaining  that 
it  was  right,  and  a  good  thing,  and  that  it  ought  to  be 
maintained  ;  and  the  other  that  it  was  an  evil,  socially 
morally  and  politically,  and  that  it  ought  to  be  abol- 
ished. The  majority  were  on  the  side  of  those  who 
contended  that  it  was  an  evil  and  a  wrong.  Nobody 
in  the  State  thought  that  there  was  anything  im- 
proper or  dangerous  in  having  the  subject  fully  dis- 
cussed. The  Louisville  Journal,  then  edited  by  Geo. 
D.  Prentice,  was  ready  to  print  articles  pointing  out 
the  evils  of  slavery.  I,  myself,  had  a  discussion  in 
its  columns  with  a  St.  Louis  physician,  who  main- 
tained that  slavery  was  right,  and  that  the  negroes 
were  little  better  than  monkeys.  Mr.  Prentice 
printed  my  articles,  and  told  me  that  he  was  glad  to 
have  them.  At  that  time  I  edited  a  small  monthly 
magazine,  and  I  printed  in  it  copious  extracts  from 
Dr.  Channing's  work  on  slavery.  At  the  time  of  the 
Alton  mob  and  the  murder  of  Lovejoy,  our  "  Western 
Messenger,"  printed  in  Louisville,  took  the  ground 
that  it  was  a  murder,  and   a  great  disgrace   to   the 


2  6  A  NTI-SLA  VER  Y  DA  VS. 

place  where  it  occurred.  No  Kentuckian  objected  to 
this  being  printed  in  Kentucky,  although  some  of  the 
Alton  people  discontinued  their  subscriptions  in  con- 
sequence. In  those  days,  every  Kentuckian  said  that 
Kentucky  would  be  the  first  State  to  emancipate, 
Alas  !  it  was  one  of  the  very  last.  The  question 
why  this  was  so  is  one  which  has  a  curious  answer, 
and  one  which  throws  light  on  human  nature.  The 
truth  was  that  Kentucky  at  that  time  was  a  Whig 
State.  It  had  been  a  Whig  State  for  15  years.  The 
Democrats  had  been  driven  from  power  in  conse- 
quence of  committing  the  great  mistake  of  trying 
to  abolish  the  old  State  Courts  and  substitute  new 
Courts,  in  order  to  maintain  a  State  Bank,  which  the 
Old  Courts  had  declared  contrary  to  to  the  Consti- 
tution of  the  United  States.  When  it  was  found  that 
there  were  two  Courts  sitting,  each  claiming  equal 
jurisdiction,  the  people  of  the  State  were  so  indignant 
with  the  Democratic  party  that  it  was  turned  out  of 
power  at  the  next  election.  But  fifteen  years  after, 
when  the  convention  was  called  to  revise  the  Consti- 
tution, it  so  happened  that  the  Democratic  party  had 
been  gradually  gaining  strength,  till  it  was  nearly 
equal  in  voters  to  the  Whig  party.  When  the  ques- 
tion was  brought  forward  as  to  whether  an  anti-slavery 
clause  should  be  inserted  in  the  Constitution,  each  of 
these  two  great  parties  was  afraid  to  do  anything 
about  it.     They  knew  that  it  ought  to  be  done,  but 


ANTI-SLA  VER  V  DA  YS.  2  7 

they  were  afraid  of  the  injury  that  might  come  to 
their  respective  parties  from  doing  it,  and  so  neither 
of  them  accepted  the  issue.  There  were,  however, 
at  that  time,  a  small  number  of  genuine  anti-slavery 
people  in  the  State.  Among  them  was  Robert  J. 
Breckenridge,  one  of  the  most  eminent  clergymen  in 
the  South,  and  noted  for  his  hostility  to  slavery.  He 
took  the  stump  at  Lexington,  and  offered  to  discuss 
the  question  of  abolition,  and  to  defend  emancipation 
in  the  State ;  and  for  three  days  he  spoke  to  the 
crowds  that  assembled  before  the  Lexington  Court 
House,  He  held  to  his  convictions  to  the  last,  even 
after  the  war  broke  out,  though  his  nephew,  the  Vice- 
President  of  the  United  States,  became  a  leader  of 
the  Confederates. 

Among  the  great  evils  of  slavery  were  the  acts  of 
violence  produced  by  it.  When  I  went  to  Kentucky 
duelling  was  considered  entirely  proper  and  neces- 
sary. I  preached  a  sermon  against  it  on  the  occasion 
of  a  very  extraordinary  duel  which  had  just  taken 
place,  and  the  father  of  one  of  the  combatants,  who 
had  been  a  U.  S.  Senator,  Judge  Rowan,  was  in  the 
church  that  day.  He  said  that  he  "  could  not  under- 
stand what  had  got  into  Mr.  Clarke's  head  to  preach 
against  duelling.  He  might  as  well  preach  against 
courage." 

The  occasion  of  that  duel,  and  the  character  of  it 
was  so  remarkable,  that  I  may  as  well  speak  of  it  to 


2  8  ANTI-SLA  VER  Y  DA  VS. 

indicate  something  of  the  spirit  of  the  South  at  that 
time. 

The  judges  of  the  courts  in  Kentucky  were  paid 
such  very  small  salaries,  that  one  could  seldom  find  a 
lawyer  of  any  eminence  who  would  consent  to  accept 
the  office.  Consequently  the  judges  knew  very  little 
about  law,  and  were  not  much  respected  by  the  bar. 
The  judge  of  the  district  where  I  lived  was  one  of  this 
inferior  class,  and  the  bar  did  not  pay  him  proper  re- 
spect. But  he  was  a  man  of  a  good  deal  of  pride,  and 
on  one  occasion,  when  he  had  been  grossly  insulted 
by  a  lawyer,  he  ordered  the  offender  to  be  sent  to  jail 
for  twenty-four  hours  for  contempt  of  court.  There- 
upon the  rest  of  the  lawyers  said  they  would  go  there 
too  ;  so  they  all  went  to  the  upper  chamber  of  the 
jail,  where  they  had  a  supper,  and  spent  the  night  in 
carousing  together.  During  the  night  a  little  quarrel 
occurred,  during  which  a  young  man  by  the  name  of 
Howells  threw  some  wine  on  Tom  Marshall's  coat. 
This  called  for  a  challenge.  They  went  across  the 
river  and  had  their  duel  in  Indiana,  but  it  was  under- 
stood that  it  need  not  be  a  deadly  one.  After  ex- 
changing shots  the  matter  was  adjusted,  and  Marshal, 
to  show  that  he  had  spared  his  opponent,  fired  his  re- 
maining pistol  at  a  little  sapling,  and  the  bark  flew 
from  the  tree.  The  second  of  his  opponent,  who  did 
not  like  Marshall,  then  remarked  :  "  It  is  a  little  strange 
that  you  should  be  able  to  hit  a  tree  at  that  distance 


ANTI-SLA  VER  Y  DA  YS.  2  9 

and  not  be  able  to  hit  a  man  who  is  much  nearer." 
"  Ylyon  were  the  man  standing  opposite  to  me  I  should 
be  able  to  hit  you,"  returned  Marshall.  "  I  will  give 
you  an  opportunity  whenever  you  choose,"  was  the 
reply.  It  was  then  arranged  that  they  should  go  out 
and  fight  each  other.  As  it  was  understood  that  they 
were  the  best  shots  in  the  city,  it  was  supposed  that 
both  might  be  killed.  As  Mr.  Rowan  was  rather  a 
better  shot  than  Marshall,  it  was  thought  that  the 
latter  ought  to  have  an  opportunity  to  practice,  and 
the  duel  was  postponed  for  a  fortnight  to  give  him  an 
opportunity. 

Every  day  Marshall  rode  into  the  country  after 
breakfast,  and  practised  an  hour  or  two  at  a  mark. 
Meanwhile  a  ball  was  given  at  Judge  Rowan's,  and 
both  opponents  were  present.  At  that  time  John 
Howard  Payne  was  on  a  visit  in  Louisville,  and  he 
frequently  came  to  see  me  at  my  lodgings.  He  en- 
tered my  room  one  morning  and  said,  "  I  have  travelled 
a  great  deal,  and  seen  a  great  variety  of  customs,  but 
I  have  never  met  with  anything  exactly  like  this 
society  of  yours  in  Kentucky.  I  was  at  the  ball  last 
night,  and  saw  Mr.  Marshall  dancing  with  a  lady  to 
whom  he  is  supposed  to  be  engaged,  and  opposite  him 
was  Mr.  Rowan  with  his  lady.  Every  one  knew  that 
they  were  going  out  in  a  few  days  to  fight  a  deadly 
duel  with  each  other,  but  nothing  showed  itself  on 
the  surface."     The  duel  took  place,  and  Mr.  Rowan 


3° 


ANTI-SLA  VER  Y  DA  YS. 


fired  a  little  more  quickly  than  his  opponent.  His 
ball  hit  Marshall  on  the  hip  and  made  him  lame  dur- 
ing his  after  life. 

Peaceful  emancipation  had  long  been  hoped  for. 
Gradual  emancipation  was  expected  by  the  fathers  of 
the  nation — Washington,  Jefferson,  Madison.  But 
the  prosperity  of  the  South  had  grown  so  great  through 
slavery,  that  emancipation  became  ever  more  difficult. 
The  cotton  crop  had  reached  such  vast  dimensions 
that  slavery  brought  great  prosperity  to  the  South, 
and  instead  of  being  willing  to  free  the  slaves  they 
had,  they  wanted  more. 

I  was  at  Henry  Clay's  home,  at  Ashland,  about  the 
year  1837.  ^e  nac*  been  riding  over  his  estate  on 
horseback,  and  came  back  tired,  and  lay  down  on  the 
sofa  and  talked  to  me  about  slavery.  He  said  he 
had  hoped  to  see  the  end  of  it  at  least  in  Kentucky, 
but  cotton  had  become  so  profitable  that  the  Southern 
States  would  not  give  it  up.  Production  had  greatly 
increased,  but  the  demand  had  increased  still  more 
rapidly.  He  had  expected  to  see  the  supply  overlap 
the  demand,  but  the  contrary  took  place.  Cotton 
planters  and  sugar  planters  made  money  so  fast  that 
the  price  of  slaves  had  greatly  increased. 

I  once  met  a  young  man  from  Pittsburg,  who  was 
a  decided  Presbyterian,  and  at  the  same  time  a  strong 
anti-slavery  man.  I  asked  him  how  he  became  so. 
He  said  that  in  his  church  in  Pittsburg,  most  of  the 


ANTI-SLA  VER  Y  DA  YS.  3  T 

members  defended  slavery,  and  he  had  supposed  it 
was  all  right  until  he  once  travelled  in  Virginia.  He 
was  riding  on  the  outside  of  the  stage-coach,  sitting 
with  the  driver.  On  the  top  of  the  coach  there  was  a 
young  colored  boy,  perhaps  18  or  19  years  old.  When 
they  came  to  a  cross-road,  he  said  to  the  driver,  "'  I 
get  off  here,  master  ;  this  is  as  far  as  I  go.  I  get  off 
here."  "  No  you  don't,"  said  the  driver.  "  Yes  I  do. 
I  get  off  here  to  go  and  see  my  old  grandmother. 
Master  said  so."  "  No,  you  are  not  going  to  see  her, 
you  are  going  with  me,"  replied  the  driver.  As  soon 
as  he  gave  that  answer  the  boy  understood  that  he 
was  sent  to  be  sold  South,  and  that  he  had  been  de- 
ceived about  it  so  that  there  should  be  no  disturbance 
about  his  going  away.  He  would  never  see  his  home 
or  friends  again.  He  burst  into  an  anguish,  an  agony 
of  tears,  and  cried  so  bitterly  that  the  heart  of  the 
driver  was  touched,  and  he  said  to  the  young  man  sit- 
ting beside  him,  "  Damn  them !  I  wish  they  would 
give  their  devilish  work  to  somebody  else  to  do,"  and 
I  think  the  recording  angel  dropped  a  tear  on  that 
oath.  As  it  happened,  when  he  looked  round  after  a 
while,  the  boy  had  disappeared.  "  I  am  glad  he  has 
gone,"  said  the  driver,  "  but  I  suppose  I  must  stop  and 
pretend  to  look  for  him."  So  he  stopped  a  little  while 
and  then  drove  on. 

That  single  fact  converted  this  young  Presbyterian 
to  anti-slavery  ;  but  this  case  must  be  multiplied  by 


32  ANTI-SLA  VER  Y  DA  YS. 

ten  thousand  other  instances  to  show  the  amount  of 
suffering  and  misery  from  that  single  source — the  sep- 
aration of  families.  It  was  said  that  ten  thousand 
slaves  were  sold  every  year  from  Virginia  to  the  cotton 
States. 

I  was  once  in  Baltimore  with  a  friend  who  was  rath- 
er conservative,  and  who  thought  that  the  abolition- 
ists were  going  too  far  and  too  fast.  He  went  to  a 
party  one  night,  and  when  he  came  home  he  said  to 
me  :  "  I  think  that  I  may  become  an  abolitionist  my- 
self." "How  is  that?"  I  asked.  uAt  this  party 
they  pointed  out  to  me  a  lady  dressed  in  rich  costume, 
evidently  a  very  fashionable  person,  and  they  told  me 
she  derived  her  support  by  being  the  owner  of  some 
half  dozen  married  negro  women  whose  husbands 
were  owned  by  other  persons.  The  children  were 
hers  because  she  owned  the  mothers,  and  she  derived 
her  income  from  the  sale  of  these  children,  disposing 
of  them  as  fast  as  they  came  to  an  age  at  which  they 
would  bring  a  good  amount.  I  do  not  think,"  said 
he,  "  I  can  stand  a  system  that  produces  such  re- 
sults." 

Now  came  the  time  when  the  stone  cut  of  the 
mountain,  without  hands,  was  to  strike  this  idol  and 
cause  it  to  fall. 

In  1 8&3,  January  6th,  an  event  took  place 
in  Boston  which  few  of  the  inhabitants  knew  any- 
thing about,  and  the  importance  of  which  no  one  sus- 


ANTI-SLA  VER  Y  DA  YS. 


33 


pected.  A  fierce  snowstorm  was  raging ;  the  snow 
mixed  with  sleet  and  rain,  and  the  streets  hardly  pas- 
sable. On  that  dismal  night  a  few  men  assembled  in 
the  African  Baptist  Church,  on  Belknap  street.  Then 
and  there  was  organized  the  Anti-Slavery  Society, 
which  was  like  the  little  mustard  seed  of  the  Bible, 
destined  to  grow  in  power  and  influence  till  its  great 
object  was  attained.  Those  present  were  David  Lee 
Child,  William  Snelling,  William  Lloyd  Garrison, 
Ellis  Gray  Loring,  Oliver  Johnson,  Samuel  E.  Sewall, 
Arnold  Buffum  and  a  few  others.  Twelve  signed  the 
constitution.  "  Not  many  wise,  not  many  noble ' 
joined  their  ranks  ;  but  then,  as  often,  God  chose  the 
weak  things  of  the  world  to  confound  the  mighty, 
and  things  that  were  not,  to  bring  to  nought  things 
that  were. 

William  Lloyd  Garrison,  the  leader  of  this  move- 
ment, was  endowed  with  the  qualities  necessary  for  a 
reformer.  His  intellect  was  clear  and  logical  ;  his  pur- 
pose determined  ;  he  had  an  iron  will,  and  convic- 
tions which  when  once  formed  knew  no  doubt  and  no 
shadow  of  turning.  *  To  him  right  was  right  and 
wrong  was  wrong,' and  he  saw  no  half  lights  or  half 
shadows  between  the  two.  He  always  called  a  spade 
a  spade,  and  did  not  define  it  as  an  agricultural  in- 
strument commonly  used  to  alter  the  position  of  the 
soil.  His  conscience  was  despotic,  and  was  in  the 
closest   alliance   with  his  convictions.      Evil  to  his 


34  A  NT1-SLA  VER  Y  DA  VS. 

mind  was  inexcusable,  intolerable.  All  the  old  puri- 
tan hatred  of  sin  was  in  him,  joined  with  all  the 
puritan  inability  to  comprehend  how  there  could  be  a 
sin  without  a  sinner.  In  1832  he  was  only  27  years 
old,  and  had  already  been  confined  in  jail  for  his 
anti-slavery  writings.  He  established  his  paper, 
"  The  Liberator,"  January  1st,  183 1,  without  a  sub- 
scriber, and  without  a  dollar  of  capital.  He  and  his 
associate  printed  it  themselves  ;  they  lived  on  bread 
from  the  baker,  and  slept  in  the  printing  office,  which 
was  in  the  third  story  of  the  building.  Oliver  John- 
son describes  the  dingy  walls  ;  the  windows  and  floors 
bespattered  with  ink  ;  the  press  in  one  corner,  the 
composing  stands  opposite;  the  writing-table  covered 
with  newspapers  ;  the  bed  of  the  editor  and  publisher 
on  the  floor.  Lowell  also  pictures  the  scene  ;  quot- 
ing at  the  head  of  the  poem  this  passage  from  the 
letter  of  Harrison  Gray  Otis,  then  Major  of  Boston ; 
"  Some  time  afterward  it  was  reported  to  me  by 
the  city  officers  that  they  had  ferreted  out  the  paper  and 
its  editor  ;  that  his  office  was  an  obscure  hole,  his  only 
visible  auxiliary  a  negro  boy,  and  his  supporters  a 
very  few  insignificant  persons  of  all  colors." 

"Ina  small  chamber,  friendless  and  unseen, 

Toiled  o'er  his  types  one  poor  unlearned  young  man. 
The  place  was  dark,  unfurnitured  and  mean, 
Yet  there  the  freedom  of  a  race  began. 

"  O  Truth !  O  freedom  !  low  are  ye,  still  born 
In  the  rude  stable,  in  the  manger  nursed ; 


ANTI-SLA  VER  Y  DA  VS.  35 

What  humble  hands  unbar  those  gates  of  morn 
Through  which  the  splendors  of  the  new  day  burst. 

"  Shall  we  not  heed  the  lesson  taught  of  old, 
And  by  the  Present's  lips  repeated  still, 
In  our  own  single  manhood  to  be  bold, 

Fortressed  in  conscience  and  impregnable  will. 

"  O  small  beginnings,  ye  are  great  and  strong, 

Based  on  a  faithful  heart  and  weariless  brain — 
Ye  build  the  future  fair,  ye  conquer  wrong, 
Ye  earn  the  crown,  and  wear  it  not  in  vain." 

Before  that  crown  was  won  there  was  a  long  strug- 
gle to  go  through,  and  many  bitter  disappointments 
to  encounter.  But  Garrison  held  to  his  purpose  to 
the  end — the  purpose  he  announced  at  the  beginning. 
He  was  thought  by  many  to  be  too  harsh  ;  too  severe ; 
too  denunciatory.  And  certainly  he  chose  his  words 
with  the  careful  purpose  of  making  them  shock  and 
sting.  His  programme  was  this  :  "  I  will  be  as  harsh 
as  truth,  as  uncompromising  as  justice.  ...  I  am  in 
earnest ;  I  will  not  equivocate  ;  I  will  not  excuse  ;  I 
will  nott  retreat  a  single  inch,  and  I  will  be  heard." 

I  remember  once  hearing  that  when  George  Brad- 
burn  was  told  that  he  ought  not  to  call  slaveholders 
thieves  and  robbers,  as  he  was  in  the  habit  of  doing, 
he  replied,  "  If  I  should  go  to  the  stall  of  that  old 
apple-woman  and  take  away  her  apples,  you  would 
call  me  a  thief  :  but  if  I  were  to  take  not  only  the 
apples,  but  the  old  woman  herself,  you  think  it  would 
be  wrong  to  say  I  was  a  robber." 


3  6  ANTI-SLA  VER  Y  DA  VS. 

Mr.  Garrison's  paper  very  soon  roused  a  nest  of 
hornets.  The  State  of  Georgia  offered  a  reward  of 
$5,000  for  his  arrest  and  conviction.  Similiar  offers, 
sincere  or  fictitious,  were  made  by  other  Southern 
States.  Then  came  a  period  of  mobs.  There  were  mobs 
all  over  the  North,  wherever  the  anti-slavery  mission- 
aries went.  July  4th,  1834,  there  was  a  mob  in  New 
York,  when  the  house  of  Louis  Tappan  was  sacked.  At 
the  same  time,  the  schoolhouses  and  churches  of  color- 
ed people  were  attacked  and  damaged.  August  13  th, 
in  the  same  year,  there  was  a  terrible  riot  in  Philadel- 
phia, that  continued  for  three  nights.  Forty-four 
houses  of  colored  people  were  damaged  and  destroyed. 
Many  colored  people  were  beaten  and  cruelly  injured, 
and  some  were  killed. 

In  the  year  1835,  Rev.  Samuel  J.  May  was  mobbed 
five  times  in  Vermont.  If  there  was  ever  a  man,  at 
the  same  time  perfectly  courageous  and  straightfor- 
ward, and  also  sweet-tempered  and  fair  to  his  oppo- 
nents, it  was  Samuel  Joseph  May.  One  would  sup- 
pose him  to  be  the  last  man  to  be  mobbed.  October 
21,  1835,  there  was  a  riot  in  Utica,  and  another  on 
the  same  day  in  the  city  of  Boston,  when  the  meeting 
of  the  Women's  Anti-Slavery  Society  was  broken  up, 
and  Garrison  was  carried  through  the  streets  with  a 
rope  around  his  body.  He  was  protected  by  Major 
Lyman,  and  put  in  jail  for  safety.  On  the  same  day, 
a  convention  of  six  hundred  delegates  met  at  Utica 


ANTI-SLA  VER  Y  DA  YS  3  7 

and  formed  an  Anti  Slavery  Society.  They  were 
shut  out  of  the  Court  House  by  a  mob,  then  went 
into  a  meeting  house,  but  the  assembly  was  broken- 
up,  and  they  were  driven  away  with  much  violence- 
On  the  17  of  May,  1838,  Penn  Hall,  built  by  the 
friends  of  free  discussion  at  a  cost  of  $40,009,  and  dedi- 
cated on  May  14th,  was  burned  by  a  mob.  Colored 
orphan  asylums  and  churches  were,  at  the  same  time, 
attacked  and  damaged. 

Amid  these  scenes  the  Anti-Slavery  Society  held 
on  its  way.  Their  cause  gained  more  and  more  in 
power.  Good  and  able  men  and  women  were  con- 
verted to  it.  The  more  it  was  attacked  the  more  it 
grew. 

In  1838,  there  were  issued  from  the  Anti-Slavery 
office  in  New  York,  646,000  copies  of  its  various 
publications.  During  a  five  months  session  of  Con- 
gress, petitions  were  sent  to  it  for  the  abolition  of 
slavery  in  the  District  of  Columbia,  signed  by  400,000 
persons.  In  two  years,  more  than  two  million  signa- 
tures were  obtained  to  these  petitions. 

The  poets  were  largely  on  the  side  of  the  reform. 
Such  writers  as  William  Cullen  Bryant,  John  Pier- 
pont,  James  Russell  Lowell,  Henry  W.  Longfellow, 
and  more  than  all,  John  G.  Whittier,  gained  some  of 
their  best  laurels  in  this  struggle. 

The  American  Colonization  Society,  first  organized 
in  1 8 16,  was  advocated  with  great  zeal  as  the  wise 


38  ANTI-SLA  VER  Y  DA  YS. 

method  of  removing  slavery  from  the  country.  The 
slaves  were  to  be  gradually  emancipated  and  sent 
back  to  Africa,  where  they  were  to  act  as  missionaries 
of  religion  and  civilization.  But  its  course  was  in- 
consistent and  illogical.  At  the  North  it  offered 
itself  as  the  true  means  to  abolish  slavery.  At  the 
South  it  proposed  to  make  slavery  more  secure  by 
sending  away  the  free  colored  people,  who  were  a 
source  of  danger  to  the  institution.  Regarded  simply 
as  a  missionary  society,  it  was  unobjectionable,  except 
from  the  natural  difficulties  in  its  way.  But  as  a 
means  of  removing  slavery,  its  plans  were  absurd.  In 
1840,  the  annual  increase  of  the  negroes  in  the  United 
States  was  about  40,000,  to  remove  whom  to  Africa, 
at  the  low  estimate  of  $100  each,  would  take  $4,000,- 
000.  But  how  were  they  to  live  after  reaching  that 
deadly  coast  ?  To  take  two  or  three  millions  of 
laborers  from  the  place  where  their  labor  was  needed 
and  valuable,  and  transfer  them  to  a  place  where 
there  was  no  demand  for  it,  surely  seemed  the  most 
chimerical  of  schemes.  As  such,  it  was  exposed  by 
Garrison  and  his  friends,  and  those  friends  of  the 
slave  who  had  been  misled  by  its  claims  were  un- 
deceived* 

—  *A  pamphlet  published  in  i88r,  by  Geo.  R.  Stetson,  of  Boston, 
called  "  The  Liberian  Republic  as  it  is,"  informs  us  that  there  are 
only  about  20,000  American  emigrants  and  their  descendants  now  in 
Liberia;  that  the  climate  is  deadly,  the  people  poor,  and  that  there  is 
not  a  horse,  and  only  one  plough  in  the  colony. 


ANTI-SLA  VERY  DA  YS. 


39 


CHAPTER  II. 

THE    FIGHT    IN    CONGRESS. 

u  They  are  slaves  who  dare  not  be 
In  the  right  with  two  or  three." 

Lowell. 

As  when,  before  a  violent  thunderstorm,  low  rum- 
bling sounds  are  heard  from  time  to  time  below  the 
horizon,  announcing  its  coming  ;  so  before  the  great 
anti-slavery  fight  in  Congress  there  were  occasional 
indications  from  time  .-to  time  of  the  approaching 
tempest.  Such  were  the  debates  in  1797,  in  which 
one  very  brave  and  loyal  man,  who  is  not  much  re- 
membered I  fear,  took  a  distinguished  part.  This 
was  George  Thacher,  a  member  of  Congress  from 
Massachusetts.  Through  many  years,  all  the  time 
that  he  was  in  Congress,  he  opposed  openly  and 
decidedly,  with  all  his  heart  and  soul,  the  aggressions 
of  the  slave-power.  Such  were  the  conflicts  also  in 
which  Josiah  Quincy  took  a  prominent  part.  He  was 
one  of  the  very  first  to  foresee  the  struggle  which 
freedom  and  the  North  would  be  obliged  to  wage  with 
the  slave-power  of  the  South.     To  the  end  of  his  ex- 


40  AWTI-SLA  VER  Y  DA  VS. 

treme  old  age,  as  long  as  he  lived,  he  was  faithful  to 
the  cause  of  freedom.  I  have  a  note  from  him,  written 
only  a  month  or  two  before  his  death,  with  which  he 
sent  me  his  check  in  behalf  of  some  effort  for  the 
benefit  of  the  colored  people.  Such  also  was  the  con- 
test which  ended  with  the  Missouri  compromise  in 
1820,  and  the  admission  of  the  State  of  Missouri  into 
the  Union  as  a  slave  state. 

In  all  these  battles  the  slave-power  won  the  victory 
by  its  strength  of  will,  its  vehement  threats  and  its 
compact  unity  of  purpose.  The  word  "  slave-power  " 
was  first  used  by  John  Gorham  Palfrey,  who  charac- 
terized by  this  very  appropriate  name  that  vast 
political  force  united  and  made  compact  by  slavery. 

Occasionally,  however,  the  Southern  fire-eaters 
would  meet  with  stern  resistance  from  Northern  men. 
So  the  sea  on  our  coast,  with  its  stormy  waves,  beats 
against  the  old  granite  rocks  of  the  shore  of  New 
England.  Such  firm  opposition  they  met  in  Josiah 
Quincy,  and  I  think  they  liked  him  the  better  for  it. 
Another  Northern  man  who  never  feared  to  encounter 
them,  was  Tristram  Burges,  of  Rhode  Island.  He  was 
full  of  humor  and  full  of  pluck.  Many  stories  are 
told  of  his  retorts  when  he  was  in  conflict  with  South- 
ern men  during  the  years  from  1825  to  1835. 

Passing  by  these  preliminary  skirmishes  between 
slavery  and  freedom,  we  come  down  to  1835,  when 
the  real  battle  commenced  on  the  floor  of  Congress, 


ANTI-SLA  VER  Y  DA  YS.  4 1 

which  ended  in  the  secession  of  the  Southern  mem- 
bers. 

The  question  found  its  way  into  the  debates  of 
Congress  in  the  form  of  petitions  for  the  abolition  of 
slavery  and  the  slave  trade  in  the  District  of  Columbia. 
If  the  slaveholders  had  allowed  these  petitions  to  be 
received  and  referred,  taking  no  notice  of  them,  it 
seems  probable  that  no  important  results  would  have 
followed.  But,  blinded  by  rage  and  fear,  they  opposed 
their  reception,  thus  denying  a  privilege  belonging  to 
all  mankind, — that  of  asking  the  government  to  redress 
their  grievances.  Then  came  to  the  front  a  man 
already  eminent  by  his  descent,  his  great  attainments, 
his  long  public  service,  his  great  position,  and  his 
commanding  ability.  John  Quincy  Adams,  after 
having  be  en  President  of  the  United  States,  accepted 
a  seat  in  the  House  of  Representatives,  and  was  one 
of  the  most  laborious  and  useful  of  its  members.  He 
was  not  then  an  Abolitionist,  nor  in  favor  even  of 
abolishing  slavery  in  the  District  of  Columbia.  But 
he  believed  that  the  people  had  the  right  to  petition 
the  government  for  anything  they  desired,  and  that 
their  respectful  petitions  should  be  respectfully  re- 
ceived. Sixty-five  years  old  in  1832,  when  he  began 
this  conflict,  his  warfare  with  the  slave-power  ended 
only  when,  struck  with  death  while  in  his  seat,  he 
"saw  the  last  of  earth  and  was  content"  With  what 
energy,  what  dauntless  courage,  what  untiring  industry, 


42  ANTI-SLA  VER  Y  DA  YS. 

what  matchless  powers  of  argument,  what  inexhaustible 
resources  of  knowledge,  he  pursued  his  object,  the 
future  historian  of  the  struggle  will  take  pleasure  in 
describing. 

At  first  there  were  only  two  or  three  Northern  men 
who  stood  against  the  slave-power.  John  Quincy 
Adams  was  for  many  years  almost  alone  in  the  House 
of  Representatives,  and  John  P.  Hale,  for  some  years 
was  alone  in  the  Senate.  The  character  and  career 
of  John  Quincy  Adams  are  both  equally  remarkable. 
He  had  immense  ability,  perfect  integrity,  and  a  spot- 
less reputation.  There  was  no  better  illustration  of 
his  character  than  those  famous  lines  of  Horace  about 
the  just  man,  who  is  tenacious  of  his  purpose,  and 
able  to  hold  himself  equally  against  the  stormy  mob 
and  the  imperious  tyrant.  He  had  vast  industry,  a 
great  store  of  knowledge,  a  keen  and  penetrating  in- 
sight into  men  and  things.  He  was  respected,  but 
not  much  liked.  He  possessed  little  power  of  enter- 
ing into  sympathetic  relations  with  others.  I  suppose 
that  he  was  one  of  the  most  lonely  men  of  his  time. 
His  was  a  temper  easily  roused  to  anger  ;  and  he  was 
full  of  dislikes  and  distastes.  There  was  no  more 
dangerous  antagonist  than  this  man,  in  whom  the  rage 
for  battle  was  ready  to  kindle  at  once  into  an  inex- 
tinguishable fire. 

I  recollect  that  I  was  once  sitting  in  the  parlor  of 
the  Louisville  Hotel,  in  Kentucky,  somewhere  about 


ANTI-SLA  VER  Y  DA  VS.  43 

1835  or  1836,  when  I  heard  a  conversation  about  John 
Quincy  Adams  between  two  Southern  statesmen, 
Felix  Grundy  of  Tennessee,  and  Gov.  Poindexter,  of 
Missouri.  They  talked  about  various  subjects,  and 
among  the  rest  about  Adams.  One  of  them  said, 
"  Our  Southern  friends  in  the  House  find  it  impossible 
to  do  anything  with  that  old  man.  They  cannot  contrive 
any  way  by  which  to  put  him  down.  If  they  wish  to  get 
any  measure  through,  which  he  will  be  likely  to  oppose, 
they  try  to  find  a  time  to  do  it  when  he  is  not  there  ; 
but  there  is  no  such  time,  because  he  is  always  in  his 
place.  There  is  no  use  in  questioning  his  facts,  be- 
cause he  is  always  right.  His  memory  never  fails 
him.  He  is  a  very  difficult  man  to  argue  with,  because 
he  always  grows  keener  and  sharper  with  every  attack. 
At  one  time  they  thought  it  would  be  a  good  plan  to 
neglect  him,  to  talk  with  each  other,  and  pay  no  at- 
tention while  he  was  speaking  ;  but  the  truth  is,  he  is  so 
infinitely  interesting,  that  it  is  impossible  not  to  listen 
to  him  whenever  he  begins  to  speak — and  everyone 
crowds  closer  to  his  chair  so  as  not  to  lose  a  word." 

Adams  was  born  in  1767  ;  the  son  of  a  president,  and 
a  president  himself,  he  passed  through  every  scene 
of  public  life  before  he  entered  into  the  last,  which  was 
the  most  important  of  all.  When  he  was  eleven  years 
old  he  went  with  his  father  to  Paris.  He  began  his  diary 
in  1779,  at  the  age  of  twelve,  and  ended  it  in  1848,  just 
before  his  death,  at  the  age  of  81.     In    1794  he  was 


44 


ANTI-SLA  VERY  DA  YS. 


sent  ambassador  to  Holland;  in  1797  to  Berlin.  In 
1802  he  returned^  and  was  elected  a  member  of  the 
Massachusetts  legislature.  The  next  year  he  was 
elected  to  the  United  States  Senate.  In  1809,  he  went 
as  minister  to  Russia.  In  18 14  he  signed  the  treaty 
of  peace  with  Great  Britain  with  the  other  Commis- 
sioners. In  181 5  he  became  Ambassador  at  the  Court 
of  St.  James.  In  1 8 1 7,  he  was  appointed  Secretary  of 
State  to  President  Monroe.  In  1825  he  became  presi- 
dent, and  after  four  years  was  superseded  by  Andrew 
Jackson.  Then,  at  62  years  of  age,  he  appeared  to 
have  run  the  whole  round  of  political  experience.  He, 
himself  thought  that  his  career  was  over  ;  but  in  fact,  it 
had  only  just  begun.  Disliked  by  the  old  Federalists 
and  leading  statesmen  in  Massachusetts,  when  nomi- 
nated for  governor  and  afterwards  for  senator,  he 
was  defeated  each  time  by  John  Davis,  and  seemed' 
to  have  no  more  opportunity.  But  the  citizens  of  the 
district  in  which  he  lived  nominated  him  for  Congress 
in  1830. 

I  recollect  that  at  this  time  his  old  and  warm  friend, 
Josiah  Quincy,  came  over  to  Newton  to  see  my 
grandfather,  James  Freeman,  and  talk  with  him  about 
this  nomination.  Mr.  Quincy  was  strongly  convinced 
that  it  was  a  mistake  on  the  part  of  John  Quincy 
Adams  to  go  to  Congress.  His  argument  was  that  a 
man  who  had  been  president  had  acquired  an  influence 
which  he  ought  to  reserve  to  use  on  some  great  oc- 


ANTI-SLA  VER  Y  DA  YS.  45 

casion,  and  not  to  have  it  frittered  away  by  debates 
in  Congress.  He  believed  that  Mr.  Adams  should 
retire  and  be  quiet,  until  there  came  some  very  im- 
portant crisis,  when  he  might  use  his  reserved  in- 
fluence to  advantage.  Mr.  Quincy  was  very  earnest 
in  this  argument.  My  grandfather  said  little  until  he 
had  got  through,  and  then  only  remarked,  "  I  have  al- 
ways thought  that  the  best  way  to  keep  one's  influence 
is  to  use  it.''  That  was  singularly  the  case  with  John 
Quincy  Adams.  He  went  to  Congress  and  used  his 
influence,  which  'continued  to  increase  to  the  last. 

At  this  time,  the  Northern  abolitionists  sent  peti- 
tions to  Congress  for  the  abolition  of  slavery  in  the 
District  of  Columbia.  They  contended  that  as  this 
territory  was  under  the  control  of  the  United  States' 
Government,  the  United  States  was  responsible  for 
slavery  there  ;  and  that  the  Free  States  were  bound 
to  do  what  they  could  to  have  slavery  brought  to  an 
end  in  that  District.  But  the  Slave  States  were  not 
willing  to  have  anything  said  on  the  subject,  so 
they  passed  what  was  called  a  "  gag "  law  in  the 
House  of  Representatives,  and  ruled  that  all  petitions 
which  had  any  relation  to  slavery  should  be  laid  on 
the  table  without  being  debated,  printed  or  referred. 
John  Quincy  Adams  opposed  this  rule  resolutely, 
maintaining  that  it  was  wrong  and  unconstitutional. 
He  said,  when  the  resolution  was  about  to  pass,  *  I 
hold  this  resolution  to  be  a  practical  violation  of  the 


46  AATTI-SLA  VER  Y  DA  YS. 

Constitution  of  the  United  States,  of  the  rules  of  this 
House,  and  of  the  rights  of  my  constituents."  Notwith- 
standing this  protest,  it  was  passed  by  a  vote  of  117 
to  68.  But  whenever  the  rule  came  up  to  be  renewed 
he  repeated  the  same  declaration,  and  insisted  on  his 
answer  being  entered  in  the  journal.  When  he  was 
called  upon  to  vote  "  yes  "  or  "  no  "  on  the  resolution, 
he  refused  to  vote,  but  made  the  same  statement,  that 
he  held  the  resolution  to  be  in  direct  violation  of  the 
Constitution,  etc.  The  speaker  told  him  that  this  was 
not  a  vote,  and  that  it  could  not  be  entered  in  the 
journal.  Mr.  Adams  then  requested  that  his  state- 
ment, with  the  Speaker's  decision,  that  it  was  not  a  vote, 
should  both  be  entered  in  the  journal.  He  continued 
to  present  petitions/  as  before,  for  the  abolition  of 
slavery  in  the  District.  When  the  day  came  for  peti- 
tions he  was  one  of  the  first  to  be  called  upon  ;  and  he 
would  sometimes  occupy  nearly  the  whole  hour  in  pre- 
senting them,  though  each  one  was  immediately  laid 
on  the  table.  One  day  he  presented  511.  There 
came  a  day,  Monday,  February  6,  1836,  when  there 
was  one  of  the  most  extraordinary  scenes  which,  I 
think,  ever  took  place  in  any  deliberative  body.  There 
are  few  scenes  in  the  history  of  such  assemblies  to 
compare  with  the  dramatic  character  of  that  scene,  in 
which,  John  Quincy  Adams,  for  several  days  stood 
alone  against  a  great  tumultuous  crowd  of  slavehold- 
ers, attempting  in  every  way  to  have  him  expelled  or 


ANTI-SLA  VER  Y  DA  YS.  47 

censured,  and  in  which  Mr.  Adams  got  the  victory 
over  them  all.  Adams  rose  in  his  seat,  and  said  he 
had  in  his  possession  a  paper  on  which  he  desired  the 
decision  of  the  Speaker  as  to  whether  it  would  come 
under  the  rule  of  the  House  respecting  subjects  con- 
cerning slavery.  "  I  hold  in  my  hand,"  said  he,  "  a 
petition  from  twenty  persons  professing  to  be  slaves, 
in  Virginia.  Does  this  come  under  the  rules  or  not, 
Mr.  Speaker  ?  "  "  Send  it  to  me,"  said  the  Speaker, 
"and  I  will  decide  upon  it."  °  No,"  said  Mr.  Adams, 
*  if  it  were  sent  to  you  it  would  then  be  in  possession 
of  the  House ;  and  I  do  not  propose  to  present  it  to 
the  House  until  I  have  the  decision.  It  may  be  an 
imposition."  Immediately  there  rose  a  most  violent 
uproar,  and  cries  of  "  Censure  him  !  Censure  him  ! " 
"  Expel  him  !  "  Haynes,  of  Georgia,  cried  out  that  it 
must  not  be  received.  Mr.  Dixon  Lewis,  of  Alabama, 
said  that  Mr.  Adams  ought  to  be  punished  for  offering 
such  a  petition.  He  added  that  the  Southern  members 
ought  to  leave  the  House  in  a  body.  Others  cried  out 
that  Adams  ought  to  be  expelled.  Thompson,  of  South 
Carolina,  moved  that  Mr.  Adams  was  guilty  of  gross 
disrespect  to  the  House,  and  that  he  be  brought  to  the 
bar  to  receive  severe  censure  for  offering  this  petition. 
Another  Southern  member  moved  that  Mr.  Adams 
had  rendered  himself  liable  to  censure,  and  is  hereby 
censured,  for  presenting  a  petition  from  slaves.  Then 
Mr.  Dixon  Lewis  moved,  "  That,  whereas  John  Quincy 


48  ANT/SLA  VER  Y  DA  VS. 

Adams,  by  his  attempt  to  introduce  a  petition  from 
slaves  for  the  abolition  of  slavery  in  the  District  of 
Columbia,  has  committed  an  outrage  ;  and  as  by  this 
flagrant  conduct  he  will  excite  the  slaves  to  insurrec- 
rection,  he  has  laid  himself  liable  to  censure." 

Then  Mr.  Adams  rose  and  said  very  frankly,  4t  I 
wish  to  save  the  House  from  wasting  its  time  on  res- 
olutions founded  on  a  mistake.  The  gentleman  from 
Alabama  had  better  amend  his  resolution  to  make  it 
conform  with  facts.  In  the  first  place  I  have  not  at- 
tempted to  introduce  a  petition.  I  merely  said  I  had 
one  in  my  possession,  and  asked  what  should  be  done 
with  it.  And,  moreover,  there  is  nothing  in  the  peti- 
tion about  the  abolition  of  slavery  in  the  District,  but 
something  very  different  from  that.  It  is  something 
which  would  please  the  gentlemen  who  have  attacked 
me  much  better  than  it  would  suit  me." 

Then  Mr.  Adams  sat  down,  leaving  his  opponents 
more  angry  than  before,  but  somewhat  confused.  Mr. 
Waddy  Thompson  modified  his  resolution,  putting  it 
in  this  form :  That  Mr.  Adams  be  censured  for 
"creating  the  impression,  and  leaving  the  House 
under  the  impression,  that  the  petition  was  for  the 
abolition  of  slavery  in  the  District  of  Columbia." 
"  But,"  said  Mr.  Adams,  "  I  certainly  ought  not  to  be 
censured  for  your  mistakes,  or  for  your  follies."  After 
a  multitude  of  other  speeches  from    the    enraged 


A2VTI-SLA  VER  Y  DA  VS.  49 

Southern  chivalry  the  debate  of  the  first  day  came  to 
an  end. 

On  the  next  day  (February  7),  in  reply  to  a  ques- 
tion, Mr.  Adams  stated  again  that  he  had  not  attempt- 
ed to  present  the  petition,  though  his  own  feelings 
would  have  led  him  to  do  so,  but  had  kept  it  in  his 
possession,  out  of  respect  to  the  House.  He  had 
said  nothing  to  lead  the  House  to  infer  that  this  petit- 
ion was  for  the  abolition  of  slavery.  He  should  con* 
sider  before  presenting  a  petition  from  slaves  ;  though, 
in  his  opinion,  slaves  had  a  right  to  petition,  and  the 
mere  fact  of  a  petition  being  from  slaves  would  not 
of  itself  prevent  him  from  presenting  it.  If  the  peti- 
tion was  a  proper  one,  he  should  present  it.  A  peti- 
tion was  a  prayer,  a  supplication  to  a  superior  being. 
Slaves  might  pray  to  God  :  was  this  House  so  supe- 
rior that  it  could  not  condescend  to  hear  a  prayer  from 
those  to  whom  the  Almighty  listened  ?  He  ended 
by  saying  that,  in  asking  the  question  of  the  Speaker, 
he  had  intended  to  show  the  greatest  respect  to 
the  House,  and  had  not  the  least  purpose  of  trifling 
with  it. 

These  brief  remarks  of  Mr.  Adams  made  it  neces- 
sary for  the  slaveholders  again  to  change  their  tactics. 
Mr.  Dromgoole,  of  Virginia,  now  brought  forward  his 
famous  resolution,  which  Mr.  Adams  afterwards  made 
so  ridiculous,  accusing  him  of  having  "  given  color  to 
an  idea  "  that  slaves  had  a  right  to  petition,  and  that 


5  o  ANTI-SLA  VER  Y  DA  YS. 

he  should  be  censured  by  the  Speaker  for  this  act. 
Another  member  proposed,  rather  late  in  the  day, 
that  a  committee  be  appointed  to  inquire  whether 
any  attempt  had  been  made,  or  not,  to  offer  a  petition 
from  slaves.  Another  offered  a  series  of  resolutions, 
declaring  that  if  any  one  "  hereafter "  should  offer 
petitions  from  slaves,  he  ought  to  be  regarded  as  an 
enemy  of  the  South,  and  of  the  Union  ;  but  that  "  as 
John  Quincy  Adams  had  stated  that  he  meant  no 
disrespect  to  the  House,  that  all  proceedings  as  to 
his  conduct  should  now  cease."  And  so,  after 
many  other  speeches,  the  second  day's  debate  came 
to  an  end. 

The  next  day  was  set  apart  to  count  the  votes  for 
President,  and  so  the  debate  was  resumed  February 
9.  It  soon  became  more  confused  than  ever.  Mo- 
tions were  made  to  lay  the  resolutions  on  the  table  ; 
they  were  withdrawn ;  they  were  renewed ;  they 
were  voted  down  ;  and,  finally,  after  much  discus- 
sion, and  when  at  last  the  final  question  was  about 
being  taken,  Mr.  Adams  inquired  whether  he  was  to 
be  allowed  to  be  heard  in  his  own  defence  before  be- 
ing condemned.  So  he  obtained  the  floor,  and  im- 
mediately the  whole  aspect  of  the  case  was  changed. 
During  three  days  he  had  been  the  prisoner  at  the 
bar  ;  suddenly  he  became  the  judge  on  the  bench. 
Never,  in  the  history  of  forensic  eloquence,  has  a 
single  speech  effected  a  greater  change  in  the  pur- 


ANTI-SLA  VER  Y  DA  VS.  5  x 

pose  of  a  deliberative  assembly.  Often  as  the  H ora- 
tion description  has  been  quoted  of  the  just  man, 
tenacious  of  his  purpose,  who  fears  not  the  rage  of 
citizens  clamoring  for  what  is  wrong,  it  has  never 
found  a  fitter  application  than  to  the  unshaken  mind 
of  John  Quincy  Adams,  standing  alone,  in  the  midst 
of  his  antagonists,  like  a  solid  monument  which  tlv* 
idle  storms  beat  against  in  vain. 

He  began  by  saying  that  he  had  been  waiting  dur- 
ing these  three  days  for  an  answer  to  the  question 
which  he  had  put  to  the  Speaker,  and  which  the 
Speaker  had  put  to  the  House,  but  which  the  House 
had  not  yet  answered,  namely,  whether  the  paper  he 
held  in  his  hand  came  under  the  rule  of  the  House  or 
not.  They  had  discussed  everything  else,  but  had 
not  answered  that  question.  They  had  wasted  the 
time  of  the  House  in  considering  how  they  could  cen- 
sure him  for  doing  what  he  had  not  done.  All  he 
wished  to  know  was,  whether  a  petition  from  slaves 
should  be  received  or  not.  He  himself  thought  that 
it  ought  to  be  received  ;  but  if  the  House  decided 
otherwise  he  should  not  present  it.  Only  one  gentle- 
man had  undertaken  to  discuss  that  question,  and  his 
argument  was,  that  if  slavery  was  abolished  by  Con- 
gress in  any  State,  you  violated  the  Constitution ; 
and,  therefore,  slaves  ought  not  to  be  allowed  to  peti- 
tion for  anything.     He,  Mr.  Adams,  was  unable  to 


52  ANTI-SLA  VERY  &A  VS. 

see  the  connection  between  the  premises  and  the 
conclusion. 

(Hereupon  poor  Mr.  French,  the  author  of  this  ar- 
gument, tried  to  explain  what  he  meant  by  it,  but  left 
his  meaning  as  confused  as  before.) 

Then  Mr.  Adams  added,  that  if  you  deprive  any 
one  in  the  community  of  the  right  of  petition,  which 
is  only  the  right  of  offering  a  prayer,  you  will  find  it 
difficult  to  know  where  to  stop :  one  gentleman  had 
objected  to  the  reception  of  one  petition,  because 
offered  by  women  of  a  bad  character.  Mr.  Patton,  of 
Virginia,  says  he  knows  that  one  of  the  names  is  of  a 
woman  of  a  bad  character. 

(Hereupon  Mr.  Patton  explained  that  he  did  not 
himself  know  the  woman,  but  had  been  told  that  her 
character  was  not  good.) 

"So,"  said  Mr,  Adams,  "you  first  deny  the  right 
of  petition  to  slaves,  then  to  free  people  of  color,  and 
then  you  inquire  into  the  moral  character  of  a  peti- 
tioner before  you  receive  his  petition.  The  next  step 
will  be  to  inquire  into  the  political  belief  of  the  peti- 
tioners before  you  receive  their  petition."  Mr.  Rob- 
ertson, of  Virginia,  had  said  that  no  petition  ought  to 
be  received  for  an  object  which  Congress  had  no 
power  to  grant.  Mr.  Adams  replied,  with  much 
acuteness,  that  on  most  questions  the  right  of  grant- 
ing the  petition  might  be  in  doubt :  a  majority  must 
decide  that  point :  it  would  therefore  follow,  from  Mr. 


ANTI-SLA  VER  V  DA  VS.  53 

Robertson's  rule,  that  no  one  had  a  right  to  petition 
unless  he  belonged  to  the  predominant  party.  Mr. 
Adams  then  turned  to  Mr.  Dromgoole,  who  had 
charged  him  with  the  remarkable  crime  of  "  giving 
color  to  an  idea,"  and  soon  made  that  representative 
of  the  Old  Dominion  appear  very  ridiculous. 

Mr.  Adams  then  proceeded  to  rebuke,  with  dignity 
but  severity,  the  conduct  of  those  who  had  proposed  to 
censure  him  without  any  correct  knowledge  of  the  facts 
of  the  case.  His  criticisms  had  the  effect  of  compelling 
these  gentlemen  to  excuse  themselves  and  to  offer 
various  explantaions  of  their  mistakes.  These  assail- 
ants suddenly  found  themselves  in  an  attitude  of  self- 
defence.  Mr.  Adams  graciously  accepted  their  ex- 
planations, advising  them  in  future  to  be  careful  when 
they  undertook  to  offer  resolutious  of  censure.  He 
then  informed  Mr.  Waddy  Thompson,  of  South  Caro- 
lina, that  he  had  one  or  two  questions  to  put  to  him. 
By  this  time  it  had  become  a  pretty  serious  business 
to  receive  the  attentions  of  Mr.  Adams  ;  and  Mr. 
Waddy  Thompson  immediately  rose  to  explain.  But 
Mr.  Adams  asked  him  to  wait  until  he  had  fully  stated 
the  question  which  Mr.  Thompson  was  to  answer. 
The  southern  statesmen  had  threatened  the  ex-Presi- 
dent of  the  United  States  with  an  indictment  by  the 
grand  jury  of  the  District  for  words  spoken  in  debate 
in  the  House  of  Representatives,  and  had  added  that, 
if  the  petition  was  presented,  Mr.  Adams  should  be.. 


54  ANTI-SLA  VER  Y  DA  YS. 

sent  to  the  penitentiary.  "  Sir,"  said  Mr.  Adams, 
"  the  only  answer  I  make  to  such  a  threat  from  that 
gentleman,  is  to  invite  him,  when  he  returns  to  his 
constituents,  to  study  a  little  the  first  principles  of 
civil  liberty."  He  then  called  on  a  gentleman  from 
the  slave  States,  to  say  how  many  of  them  indorsed 
that  sentiment.  "  I  do  not,"  said  Mr.  Underwood  of 
Kentucky.  "  I  do  not,"  said  Mr.  Wise  of  Virginia. 
Mr.  Thompson  was  compelled  to  attempt  another  ex- 
planation, and  said  he  meant  that,  in  South  Carolina , 
any  member  of  the  Legislature  who  should  present  a 
petition  from  slaves,  could  be  indicted.  "  Then,"  re- 
plied Mr.  Adams,  and  this  produced  a  great  sensation, 
"  if  it  is  the  law  of  South  Carolina  that  members  of 
her  Legislature  may  be  indicted  by  juries  for  words 
spoken  in  debate,  God  Almighty  receive  my  thanks 
that  I  am  not  a  citizen  of  South  Carolina." 

Mr.  Adams  ended  his  speech  by  declaring  that  the 
honor  of  the  House  of  Representatives  was  always 
regarded  by  him  as  a  sacred  sentiment,  and  that  he 
would  feel  a  censure  from  that  House  as  the  heaviest 
misfortune  of  a  long  life,  checkered  as  it  had  been  by 
many  vicissitudes.* 

When  Mr.  Adams  began  his  defence,  not  only  was 
a  large  majority  of  the  House  opposed  to  his  course, 

*  He  added  that  if  the  House  wished  to  know  what  the  paper  was 
he  would  send  it  to  the  Speaker's  desk.  It  proved  to  be  a  petition 
purporting  to  be  from  slaves,  asking  that  John  Quincy  Adams  be  ex* 
pelled  from  Congress. 


ANTI-SLA  VER  Y  DA  VS. 


55 


but  they  had  brought  themselves  by  a  series  of  vio- 
lent harangues,  into  a  condition  of  bitter  excitement 
against  him.  When  he  ended,  the  effect  of  this  ex- 
traordinary speech  was  such,  that  all  the  resolutions 
were  rejected,  and  out  of  the  whole  House  only 
twenty-two  members  could  be  found  to  pass  a  vote  of 
even  indirect  censure.  The  victory  was  won,  and  won 
by  Mr.  Adams  almost  single-handed.  We  count 
Horatius  Codes  a  hero  for  holding  the  Roman 
bridge  against  a  host  of  enemies;  but  greater  honors 
belong  to  him  who  successfully  defends  against  over- 
whelming numbers  the  ancient  safeguards  of  public 
liberty.  For  this  reason  we  have  repeated  here  at 
such  length  the  story  of  three  days  which  the  people 
of  the  United  States  ought  always  to  remember.  It 
took  ten  years  to  accomplish  the  actual  repeal  of  these 
gag-laws.  But  the  main  work  was  done  when  the 
right  of  speech  was  obtained  for  the  friends  of  free- 
dom in  Congress  ;  and  John  Quincy  Adams  was  the 
great  leader  in  this  warfare* 

Although  in  these  debates,  Mr.  Adams  bore  the 
brunt  of  the  battle  alone,  and  was  perfectly  equal  to 
doing  it,  there  were  a  few  members  of  the  House,  and 
the  Senate,  who  stood  by  his  side  in  the  defence  of 
the  Right  of  Petition.  Mr.  Lincoln  and  Caleb  Cush- 
ing,  of   Massachusetts  ;  Mr.   Evans,  of  Maine ;  Wil- 

*  This  account  has  been  taken,  by  permission,  from  an  article  in  the 
North  American  Review,  written  by  the  author  of  the  present  work. 


56  ANTI-SLA  VER  Y  DA  YS. 

liam  Slade,  of  Vermont ;  and  in  the  Senate,  Morris, 
of  Ohio,  stood  firm  for  this  right. 

But  the  most  courageous  supporter  of  Mr.  Adams 
in  Congress,  and  the  most  determined  opponent  of 
the  slave-power,  was  Joshua  R.  Giddings  of  Ohio. 
Born  in  Pennsylvania,  he  was  taken  by  his  parents, 
when  he  was  ten  years  old,  to  Ashtabula  County,  in 
the  Western  Reserve  in  Ohio.  This  region  had  been 
settled  from  New  England,  and  its  inhabitants  were 
an  intelligent  and  energetic  people,  believing  in  free- 
dom and  humanity.  It  was  strongly  anti-slavery. 
Elected  to  Congress  in  1838,  Giddings  immediately 
placed  himself  by  the  side  of  Mr.  Adams  as  a  promi- 
nent defender  of  the  Right  of  Petition,  and  an  oppon- 
ent of  the  pro-slavery  party.  In  1842,  he  brought 
before  Congress  the  case  of  the  Creole,  an  American 
vessel,  which  sailed  from  Virginia  for  New  Orleans 
with  a  cargo  of  136  slaves.  The  slaves  rose  against 
the  master  and  crew,  and  took  the  ship  into  the  British 
port  of  Nassau,  where  their  right  to  freedom  was  rec- 
ognized. This  event  created  much  excitement,  and 
Mr.  Webster,  then  Secretary  of  State,  in  a  letter  to 
Edward  Everett,  then  Minister  in  London,  declared 
the  intention  of  our  Government  to  demand  indemni- 
fication for  the  owners.  Mr.  Giddings  maintained, 
in  a  series  of  resolutions  offered  in  Congress,  that 
slavery  being  an  abridgment  of  natural  right,  could 
have  no  force  beyond  the  territorial  jurisdiction  which 


ANTI-SLA  VER  Y  DA  YS. 


57 


created  it,  and  that  a  vessel  leaving  the  United  States 
and  passing  upon  the  high  seas,  left  slavery  behind. 
Consequently  the  slaves  had  become  free,  and  had 
violated  no  law  in  seizing  their  freedom,  and  that  we 
had  no  claim  to  any  indemnity.  For  taking  this 
ground,  the  House  voted  to  censure  Mr.  Giddings. 
Thereupon  he  resigned  his  seat  and  appealed  to  his 
constituents,  who  re-elected  him  by  a  large  majority. 
He  was  re-elected  again  and  again  during  twenty-one 
years.  During  all  this  period  he  was  one  of  the  most 
determined  and  plucky  opponents  of  the  slave- power, 
and  consequently  was  the  subject  of  frequent  abuse 
and  threats.  This,  however,  made  no  impression  on 
this  sturdy  Ohio  abolitionist,  a  meet  companion  of 
Corwin,  Morris,  Chase,  and  Root  of  that  noble  State. 
Jan.  21,  1842,  Mr.  Adams  presented  a  petition  from 
45  citizens  of  Haverhill,  Mass.,  praying  for  the  disso- 
lution of  the  Union,  and  moved  it  be  referred  to  a 
select  committee,  with  instructions  to  report  why  the 
petition  should  not  be  granted.  There  was  at  once 
great  excitement  and  members  called  out,  "Expel 
him,"  "  Censure  him."  After  a  good  deal  of  fruitless 
endeavor  to  accomplish  something,  the  House  ad- 
journed, and  forty  or  fifty  slaveholders  met  to  decide 
what  kind  of  resolutions  should  be  presented  to  meet 
the  case.  Thomas  F.  Marshall  of  Kentucky  was 
selected  by  this  caucus  from  Congress  to  propose  the 
resolutions,  which  were  to  the  effect  that  for  present- 


q  8  ANTI-SLA  VER  Y  DA  VS. 

ing  such  a  petition  to  a  body  each  of  whom  had  taken 
an  oath  to  maintain  the  Constitution,  Mr.  Adams  was 
virtually  inviting  them  to  prejure  themselves,  and 
that  therefore  he  deserved  the  severest  censure. 
Marshall  supported  this  with  a  very  violent  speech. 
Mr.  Wise  followed  in  another.  Then  Mr.  Adams 
arose  and  asked  the  clerk  to  read  the  first  paragraph 
of  the  Declaration  of  Independence,  being  the  one 
which  recognizes  the  right  of  every  people  to  alter  or 
abolish  their  form  of  Government  when  it  ceases  to 
accomplish  its  ends.  He  said  that  those  who  believed 
that  the  present  Government  was  oppressive  had  the 
right  (according  to  the  Declaration  of  Independence, 
on  which  the  whole  of  our  national  unity  reposes),  to 
petition  Congress  to  do  what  they  believed  was  desir- 
able ;  and  all  that  Congress  could  properly  do  would 
be  to  explain  to  them  why  such  an  act  could  not  be 
performed.  He  replied  with  great  severity  to  Mr. 
Wise  and  said  that  Mr.  Wise  had  come  into  that  Hall 
a  few  years  before  with  his  hands  dripping  with  the 
blood  of  one  of  his  fellow  beings.  In  this  he  alluded 
to  the  part  which  Mr.  Wise  had  taken  in  the  duel  be- 
tween Mr.  Graves  of  Kentucky,  and  Cilley  of  Maine, 
in  which  the  latter  had  been  killed.  As  for  Mr.  Mar- 
shall who  had  accused  him  of  treason,  he  spoke  of  him 
with  great  scorn.  "  I  thank  God ! "  said  he  "  that 
the  Constitution  of  my  country  has  defined  treason, 
and  has  not  left  it  to  the  puny  intellect  of  this  young 


AATTZ-SLA  VER  Y  DA  VS. 


59 


man  from  Kentucky  to  say  what  it  is.  If  I  were  the 
father  of  this  gentleman  from  Kentucky,  I  should 
take  him  from  this  House  and  put  him  to  school  where 
he  might  study  his  profession  for  some  years  until  he 
became  a  little  better  qualified  to  appear  in  this  place." 
Mr.  Adams  had  on  his  desk  a  great  many  books  and 
references  prepared  for  his  use  by  some  anti-slavery 
gentlemen  then  in  Washington ;  after  he  had  gone 
on  for  some  time  with  his  speech  he  was  asked  how 
much  more  time  he  would  probably  occupy.  He  re- 
plied "  I  believe  Mr.  Burke  took  three  months  for  his 
speech  on  Warren  Hasting's  indictment.  I  think  I 
may  probably  get  through  in  ninety  days,  perhaps  in 
less  time."  Thereupon  they  thought  it  just  as  well  to 
have  the  whole  thing  come  to  an  end  and  it  was 
moved  that  the  matter  should  be  laid  on  the  table. 
Mr.  Adams  consented,  and  it  was  done. 

In  these  two  cases  he  defeated  his  enemies  in  a 
hand  to  hand  fight.  After  this  they  had  so  much  re- 
spect for  him,  that  on  one  occasion  when  the  house 
met  and  found  itself  unable  to  organize,  on  account 
of  the  clerk's  refusing  to  read  the  names  of  certain 
members  from  New  Jersey  who  had  received  their 
Governor's  certificate  but  whose  seats  were  contested, 
Mr.  Adams  was  asked  if  he  could  point  out  a  way  by 
which  the  House  could  be  organized.  He  replied 
"  Yes,  I,  myself,  will  call  you  to  order  if  you  will 
allow  me  to  do  so,"  Thereupon  he  said, "  I  call  on  you 


6o  ANTI-SLA  VER  Y  DA  YS. 

to  come  to  order  and  I  ask  you  to  nominate  a  tempo- 
rary speaker."  He  was  himself  chosen  the  temporary 
speaker  and  for  several  days  presided  over  the  House 
until  they  were  able  to  appoint  a  permanent  speaker. 
His  career  in  Congress  is  very  interesting,  showing 
that  at  his  advanced  age  he  still  preserved  all  this 
wonderful  power  and  was  more  than  a  match  for  his 
opponents.  His  firmness  was  stronger  than  their 
violence,  for  he  had  justice  and  right  with  him.  He 
was  a  man  of  such  invincible  tenacity  of  purpose  that 
with  the  right  on  his  side  he  was  perfectly  invulner- 
able.    He  could  not  be  defeated. 

I  have  spoken  of  John  P.  Hale,  who  was  a  very 
different  man.  He  was  a  Democrat,  chosen  by  New 
Hampshire  as  member  of  the  House  of  Representatives. 
While  there  the  project  of  the  annexation  of  Texas 
came  up,  and  he  opposed  it.  He  went  back  to  New 
Hampshire  and  continued  to  oppose  this  plan,  which 
had  become  a  party  measure  to  which  the  Democrats 
had  committed  themselves.  He  took  the  stump 
through  the  whole  state  showing  the  evil  and  wrong 
of  annexation,  the  object  of  which  was  the  increase  of 
the  slave-power.  He  succeeded  in  changing  the 
sentiments  of  the  people  on  this  subject  to  such  a 
degree  that  in  the  course  of  the  year  he  was  returned 
to  the  Senate  as  an  Independent  Democrat.  He  was 
there  for  several  years  alone,  with  no  one  to  stand  by 
him,  being  elected   to  the  Senate  in   1847.     He  was 


ANTI-SLA  VER  Y  DA  VS.  6 1 

prompt,  ready,  quick,  able  to  answer  any  attack  at  a 
moment's  warning.  He  had  the  faculty  of  thinking 
on  his  feet.  He  also  possessed  a  large  fund  of  good 
humor  and  much  genuine  wit.  He  was  good  at 
repartee,  and  though  the  slaveholders  did  their  best 
to  put  him  down,  they  seldom  got  the  better  of  him. 

In  the  winter  of  1851  and  1852,  I  was  in  Washing- 
ton and  was  frequently  on  the  floor  of  the  Senate 
chamber,  during  this  session,  which  was  the  last 
attended  by  Henry  Clay.  The  compromises  as  they 
were  called,  had  been  passed,  the  compromises  by 
which  the  Free  Soil  party  was  to  be  put  down  and 
Political  anti-slavery  was  to  be  brought  to  an  end. 
All  anti-slavery  discussion  was  also  expected  to  cease, 
and  the  whole  excitement  about  slavery  to  be  ended. 
Mr.  Clay  rose  one  day  in  his  place,  and  speaking  of 
the  Free  Soil  party  said,  "  It  has  been  put  down  ; 
down,  down,  down  ;  so  low  that  it  will  never  rise  again. 
I  thank  God  that  it  has  been  put  down  forever."  He 
spoke  with  a  good  deal  of  indignation  in  his  tones 
Immediately  John  P.  Hale  rose  and  said,  "  As  a  mem- 
ber of  the  Free  Soil  party,  I  am  very  much  interested 
in  the  piece  of  information  I  have  just  received  from 
the  Honorable  Senator  from  Kentucky  ;  namely  that 
the  party  to  which  I  belong  has  been  put  '  down, 
down,  down,  so  low  that  we  never  shall  rise  again.'  I 
am  afraid  the  Senator  may  be  right.  I  very  much 
fear  he  is  correct  in  his  statement ;  since  there  is  no 


62  ANTI-SLA  VER  Y  DA  YS. 

man  on  this  floor  who  knows  better  by  his  own  ex- 
perience what  it  is  to  be  put  down,  down,  down,  and 
to  be  kept  down,  than  the  Honorable  Senator  from 
Kentucky."  Gay  was  hit  hard  by  this  rejoinder,  he 
having  repeatedly  lost  the  nomination  for  Presidency. 
After  we  left  the  Senate  chamber,  I  said  to  Hale, 
"  Mr.  Clay  will  never  forgive  you  for  that  speech." 
"  No,  he  never  will,  but  what  would  you  have  ?  They 
may  trample  upon  us,  but  they  shall  not  trample  on 
us  without  at  least  hearing  something  in  reply.'' 

On  another  occasion,  some  one  said  to  Hale.  "The 
gentleman  from  New  Hampshire  will  have  to  eat  his 
words."  Mr.  Hale  at  once  replied,  "  If  I  eat  my  words 
I  think  I  shall  have  a  much  more  palatable  meal 
than  that  gentleman  would  have  if  he  were  to  eat  his 
words." 

Jn  the  year  1 849,  Salmon  P.  Chase  was  elected  to 
the  Senate  as  a  Free  Soiler.  The  same  year  William 
H.  Seward  was  also  elected.  He  was  an  anti-siavery 
man  from  the  first.  Two  years  after,  in  1851,  Charles 
Sumner  was  chosen  to  the  Senate,  and  four  years 
after  that,  in  1855  Henry  Wilson  was  sent  as  his 
colleague.  And  thus  by  degrees  the  strength  of  the 
anti-slavery  members  of  the  House  and  Senate  was 
much  increased. 

I  recollect  that  in  this  winter  of  1851,  I  used  some- 
times to  go  on  Saturday  evenings  to  the  house  of 
Gamaliel  Bailey,  Editor  of  the  "  National  Era."     On 


ANTI-SLA  VER  Y  DA  VS.  6$ 

those  evenings,  anti-slavery  members  of  Congress  were 
wont  to  assemble  and  to  meet  other  gentlemen  of 
their  way  of  thinking  from^  different  parts  of  the 
country.  I  met  there  Seward,  Giddings,  Chase,  Hale, 
Julian,  Slade,  Horace  Mann,  and  I  think,  also,  John 
G.  Palfrey.  Such  men  were  at  that  time  unpopular 
in  Congress  ;  they  were  in  a  small  minority ;  their 
influence  was  supposed  to  amount  to  little  ;  but  as 
the  wheel  of  time  revolved  they  came  to  the  summit. 
Seward  became  Secretary  of  State,  Hale  was  ambas- 
sador to  Russia^  Chase  was  Secretary  of  the  Treasury 
and  afterwards  Chief  Justice  of  the  United  States. 
Yet,  while  the  power  of  the  anti-slavery  sentiment 
was  increasing  throughout  the  Northern  States,  the 
slave-power  continued  to  win  new  triumphs. 

The  decision  of  the  Supreme  Court  in  the  Prigg 
case,  was  also  considered  a  pro-slavery  triumph.  Prigg 
seized  a  slave  woman  who  had  escaped  into  Pennsyl- 
vania. Under  the  laws  of  Pennsylvania  he  was 
arrested,  indicted  and  sentenced  to  fine  or  imprison- 
ment,^ because,  by  the  law  of  that  State  such  an  arrest 
was  not  allowed.  But  by  this  decision  of  the  Supreme 
Court  it  was  settled  that  Congress  alone  had  power 
to  legislate  concerning  fugitives,  and  it  was,  moreover, 
decided  that  a  master  might  seize  his  slave  wherever 
he  found  him,  and  carry  him  out  of  the  State  without 
trial.  As  a  result  of  this,  it  was  assumed  that  if  a 
man  was  claimed  as  a  slave  he  must  necessarily  be 


64  ANTI-SLA  VER  Y  DA  YS. 

one.  There  were  free  northern  colored  people  every- 
where who  were  arrested  under  this  ruling,  and  the 
kidnapping  of  free  colored  people  frequently  took 
place.  They  were  torn  from  their  homes  and  carried 
off  to  be  sold.  If  some  brutal  man  wanted  to  make  a 
little  money  he  might  seize  men,  women  or  children, 
carry  them  away  and  sell  them,  and  they  never  would 
be  heard  of  again. 

When  this  Prigg  decision  was  made,  some  of  the 
people  in  the  Northern  states  said,  "  We  have  been 
relieved  from  all  duty  in  this  matter.  The  Courts  say 
we  must  not  interfere.  We  will  go  farther,  and  say 
we  will  not  interfere."  And  so  the  legislatures 
passed  laws  forbidding  the  Northern  jails  to  receive 
fugitives,  and  forbidding  their  officers  to  aid  in  the 
search  for  them. 

In  1836  Arkansas  was  admitted  with  a  constitution 
preventing  slavery  from  being  ever  abolished,  in  spite 
of  the  opposition  of  Adams  and  others. 

The  next  triumph  of  the  slave-power  was  in  1838, 
when  the  Florida  war  occurred.  This  was  occasioned 
by  slaveholders  who  had  gone  among  the  Seminoles 
to  recover  their  escaped  slaves.  The  soldiers  of  our 
army  were  employed  to  seize  the  fugitives.  The 
Seminoles  refused  to  give  them  up.  They  were 
pursued,  and  finally  after  a  war  which  lasted  eight 
years,  they  were  overcome,  and  the  Seminoles  were 


ANTI-SLA  VER  Y  DA  YS.  65 

obliged  to  surrender  the  colored  fugitives,  and  consent 
to  go  West  themselves. 

The  next  victory  for  the  slave-power  was  in  1844, 
when  Mr.  Samuel  Hoar  was  sent  to  South  Carolina 
to  collect  information  about  the  free  colored  citizens 
from  the  North,  then  in  prison  or  in  slavery.  When, 
in  obedience  to  a  resolution  of  the  Massachusetts 
legislature  Mr.  Hoar  went  to  South  Carolina,  there 
was  a  great  deal  of  excitement  in  Charleston,  and  he 
was  advised  to  return  at  once.  He  refused  to  go, 
saying  he  had  come  to  perform  an  important  duty  for 
the  State  of  Massachusetts,  to  find  out  certain  facts 
in  regard  to  her  citizens.  The  duty  of  the  State  was 
to  protect  its  citizens.  He  was  compelled,  however, 
to  return,  as  they  threatened  to  drag  him  away  by 
force  unless  he  went  peaceably. 

In  December,  1843,  began  the  agitation  for  the  an- 
nexation of  Texas.  Mr.  Calhoun  had  been  Secretary 
of  State.  The  first  plan,  which  was  certainly  the  legal 
one,  was  to  annex  it  by  treaty.  It  was  urged  on  the 
President  and  Senate,  but  it  required  a  vote  of  two- 
thirds  of  that  body  which  they  could  not  get.  There 
was  immense  opposition  in  the  Njrth,  and  even  the 
Southern  States  felt  certain  objections  to  this  meas- 
ure. It  was  some  time  before  the  South  was  united 
in  its  favor  TL  Whig  press  in  the  South  opposed 
it,  and  the  Whigs  voted  against  it,  and  it  was  thus  de- 
feated.    Mr.  Clay  was  specially  opposed  to  it  on  many 


66  ANTI-SLA  VER  Y  DA  VS. 

grounds.  Through  the  North  it  was  understood  to 
be  a  plan  of  the  slaveholders  for  getting  more  terri- 
tory from  which  to  carve  slave  states.  This  immense 
State  of  Texas,  half  as  large  as  the  orginal  thirteen 
states  united,  was  to  be  annexed,  and  slavery  allowed 
to  go  into  it.  Finally,  by  the  terms  by  which  it  was 
at  last  annexed,  it  was  agreed  that  in  the  course  of 
time  there  should  be  five  slave  states  made  out  of  it, 
adding  ten  slaveholders  to  the  United  States  Senate. 
The  proposed  annexation  by  joint  resolution  became 
the  measure  on  which  the  presidential  election  turned. 
Polk  announced  himself  in  favor  of  annexation,  and 
Clay  opposed  it.  Clay  was  defeated  and  Polk  elected, 
and  in  consequence  Texas  was  immediately  annexed, 
President  Tyler  signing  the  bill  as  acting  president. 
This  was  followed  by  war  with  Mexico.  General 
Taylor  was  ordered  by  Polk  to  advance  beyond  the 
Nueces,  the  old  boundary  of  Texas,  and  this  brought 
on  war.  Congress  voted  that  "  war  existed  by  the 
act  of  Mexico,"  although  it  really  existed  in  conse- 
quence of  General  Taylor  going  into  territory  which 
never  had  belonged  to  Texas.  This  was  the  next 
triumph  of  the  slave-power.  By  this  war  there  was 
added  to  the  United  States  territory  which  the  slave- 
power  thought  would  finally  come  into  their  posses- 
sion. 

About  that  time,  in  1846,  David  Wilmot,  a  Demo, 
crat  of  Pennsylvania,  offered  a  proviso  to  the  resolu- 


ANTI-SLA  VER  Y  DA  YS.  67 

tion  of  annexation,  to  exclude  slavery  from  all  terri- 
tories required  from  Mexico.  This  was  passed  by  a 
vote  of  87  to  64,  but  the  Senate,  which  was  intensely 
Democratic,  rejected  the  proviso  in  spite  of  the  oppo- 
sition of  Mr.  Webster  and  others  who  defended  it, 
and  the  House  finally  relinquished  this  anti-slavery 
prohibition.  We  then  paid  $15,000,000,  and  we  ac- 
quired Upper  and  Lower  California  and  New  Mexico. 

In  1850  came  the  compromise  measures,  which 
were  to  settle  all  the  disputes  about  slavery.  Henry 
Clay  was  the  father  of  these  measures.  The  general 
points  included  were  these  : — That  California  should 
be  admitted  as  a  free  state  if  the  inhabitants  so  deter- 
mined. That  the  Wilmot  proviso  should  not  be  ap- 
plied to  the  territories.  That  the  debt  of  Texas  should 
be  paid  on  condition  of  its  giving  up  its  claim  to  any 
part  of  New  Mexico  ;  and  that  the  Fugitive  Slave 
Law  was  to  be  passed.  These  compromises,  as  they 
were  called,  occasioned  a  great  deal  of  excitement. 
The  anti-slavery  people  considered  that  the  slave- 
power  had  won  a  new  triumph,  and  felt  that  the  whole 
North  was  beginning  to  be  put  under  the  yoke  of 
slavery. 

In  1853  and  4  came  one  of  the  measures  which 
startled  the  North  more  than  anything  else,  the  re- 
peal of  the  Missouri  compromise.  Missouri  had  been 
received  as  a  slave  state  in  1820.  It  had  been  finally 
admitted  with  slavery,  because  there  was  a  condition 


68  ANTI-SLA  VER  Y  DA  VS. 

affixed  that  no  slavery  should  ever  after  be  allowed  in 
any  territory  north  of  36°  30'  north  latitude,  which 
was  the  southern  boundary  of  Missouri.  By  that 
condition  slavery  was  excluded  from  Kansas  and  Ne- 
braska, and  they  were  secured  to  freedom.  Now, 
having  obtained  their  share  of  the  bargain,  the  slave- 
power  determined  to  have  the  other  part  also.  Stephen 
A.  Douglas  of  Illinois  declared  that  the  compromises 
of  1850  had  abolished  the  Missouri  compromise,  and 
that  slavery  might  now  enter  those  states.  He  was 
opposed  by  many  leading  men,  as  Chase,  Sumner, 
Wade,  Giddings,  Everett  and  Seward,  who  said  it  was 
the  violation  of  a  sacred  pledge.  The  debate  lasted 
four  months,  and  ended  in  the  triumph  of  the  slave- 
power,  and  the  repeal  of  the  Missouri  restriction. 

Then  followed  in  1854  the  Kansas  struggle,  of 
which  we  will  speak  later,  together  with  the  events 
which  followed.  We  will  now  return  to  the  move- 
ment as  it  went  on  outside  of  Congress. 


ANTI-SLA  VER  Y  DA  KS.  6  9 


CHAPTER  III. 

ABOLITIONISTS   AND   THEIR   ACTIVITY — FUGITIVE 
SLAVES. 

"  Once  to  every  man  and  nation,  comes  the  moment  to  decide 
In  the  strife  of  Truth  with  Falsehood  for  the  good  or  evil  side. 
Some  great  cause,  God's  new  Messiah,  offering  each  the  bloom  or 

blight, 
Parts  the  goats  upon  the  left  hand,  parts  the  sheep  upon  the  right." 

Lowell. 

In  the  last  chapter  I  enumerated  the  successive 
political  triumphs  of  the  slave-power  in  the  United 
States.  These  were  as  follows  : — The  decision—0^ 
the  Supreme-Co4artin-th^-Prig§-cas% -which- -decision 
established  the  doctrine  that  the  Free  States  had  no 
right  to  pass  any  laws  in  relation  to  slavery  or  fugi- 
tives. It  was  placed  entirely  in  the  power  of  Con- 
gress to  pass  any  law  for  the  recovery  of  fugitives, 
and  the  Free  States  could  not  interfere  to  protect  their 
own  free  colored  people.  That  was  one  of  the  first 
triumphs  of  the  slave-power.  The  admission  of  Ar- 
kansas as  a  slave  state  came  in  1836  ;  the  Florida 
war  in  1838,  the  object  of  which  was  to  secure  slavery 
in  Georgia.     In  1844  an  attempt  was  made  by  Massa- 


7  o  ANTI-SLA  VER  Y  DA  YS. 

chusetts  to  protect  her  free  colored  seamen  in  South- 
ern ports.  There  were  many  free  colored  people  at 
the  North  who  went  into  the  mercantile  marine. 
Some  of  the  Southern  states  passed  laws  to  the  effect 
'that  any  colored  man  entering  the  state  should  be  ar- 
rested and  confined  in  jail,  and  at  the  same  time  pay 
his  expenses  while  there.  If  he  did  not  have  the 
means,  he  was  sold  into  slavery  to  pay  the  debt.  It 
was  understood  that  free  colored  men  from  Massa- 
chusetts, sailing  on  her  vessels,  had  been  made  slaves 
in  this  way  and  attempts  were  made  to  test  the  con- 
stitutionality of  these  oppressive  laws  of  the  Southern 
States.  Mr.  Samuel  Hoar  was,  therefore,  sent  to 
South  Carolina  by  the  State  of  Massachusetts  to  pro- 
cure evidence  and  bring  the  cases  before  the  United 
States  courts.  He  was,  however,  compelled  to  leave, 
being  driven  by  force  out  of  the  State.  In  the  same 
year  came  the  annexation  of  Texas,  followed  by  the 
war  with  Mexico.  The  object  of  this  was  believed  to 
be  to  procure  additional  territory  for  the  purposes  of 
slavery.  It  was  supposed  that  New  Mexico  and  Cali- 
fornia, which  were  obtained  from  Mexico,  as  the  re- 
sult of  the  war,  would  become  slave  states.  In  1850 
came  what  were  called  the  compromise  measures,  and 
the  defeat  of  the  Wilmot  Proviso,  which  proviso  was 
at  first  supported  by  the  majority  of  the  Democratic 
part  of  the  House  of  Congress,  as  well  as  by  the 
Whigs.     It  was  to  the  effect  that  any  territory  that 


ANTI-SLA  VER  Y  DA  YS.  7  r 

should  be  obtained  as  the  result  of  the  war  should  be 
free  from  slavery.  This  proviso  was  finally  defeated 
by  the  slave-power.  Another  of  these  measures  was 
the  passage  of  the  Fugitive  Slave  Law,  by  which  it 
became  much  more  easy  for  slaveholders  to  pursue 
and  recover  their  slaves  who  had  escaped  to  the  other 
states.  In  consequence  of  this  law,  there  were  fugi- 
tives carried  from  Boston — a  fact  which  had  not  taken 
place  before  in  the  memory  of  man.  Then  came,  in 
1853,  the  repeal  of  the  Missouri  Agreement,  to  ex- 
clude slavery  north  of  360  30',  so  that  slavery  was 
now  allowed  to  go  into  that  territory,  from  which  it 
had  previously  been  shut  out  by  mutual  agreement. 
The  Lecompton  Constitution,  for  Kansas,  followed  in 
1857,  which  was  a  Pro-slavery  Constitution,  making 
Kansas  a  slave  state,  and  one  which  was  passed  in 
opposition  to  a  majority  of  the  actual  inhabitants  by 
the  power  of  Missourians,  who  invaded  the  State  for 
that  purpose. 

These  Missouri  slaveholders  crowded  across  the 
state  line  to  Kansas,  and  took  possession  of  the  polls. 
In  1856,  came  the  attack  on  Charles  Sumner  by 
Preston  Brooks,  in  consequence  of  his  speech  on  the 
wrongs  of  the  people  of  Kansas.  He  was  struck 
down  by  violent  blows  of  a  cudgel  while  in  his  seat 
in  the  Senate  Chamber,  and  was  so  disabled  that  he 
could  not  return  for  four  years.  Brooks  resigned  his 
seat,  knowing  that  he  might  be  expelled,  but  was  im* 


72 


ANTI-SLA  VER  Y  DA  VS. 


mediately  re-elected  to  Congress,  and  through  his  act 
he  became  a  hero.  There  was  scarcely  any  press,  or 
public  man  in  the  South,  who  did  not  boldly  declare 
that  he  had  done  right.  In  1857,  came  the  Dred 
Scott  Decision.  This  decision  delivered  by  a  ma- 
jority of  the  judges  of  the  Supreme  Court  of  the 
United  States,  including  Chief  Justice  Taney,  and 
read  by  him,  decided  that  the  colored  people  in  the 
United  States  were  not  citizens  ;  that  no  colored  man 
could  become  a  citizen  ;  and  that  he  had  no  rights  be- 
fore the  law.  In  this  decision,  Judge  Taney  made  the 
well-known  and  often-quoted  statement,that  at  the  time 
of  the  adoption  of  the  Constitution,  it  was  considered 
that  "the  colored  man  had  no  rights  which  the  white 
man  was  bound  to  respect."  This  statement  was 
made  in  apparent  forgetfulness  of  all  that  had  been 
said  by  Washington  and  others  concerning  the  rights 
of  all  men.  Before  that  time  the  South  had  only 
claimed,  that  if  a  slave  escaped  to  a  free  state,  the 
slaveholder  had  a  right  to  take  him.  It  was  now  de- 
cided, that  if  the  slaveholder  himself  took  him  into  a 
free  state,  and  he  escaped,  the  holder  had  a  right  to 
recover  him. 

There  were  able  and  conclusive  arguments  read  by 
Justices  McClean  and  Curtis  in  opposition  to  this  de- 
cision. Those  of  us  who  had  long  known  Benjamin 
R.  Curtis,  and  his  great  ability,  were  proud  of  the 
commanding  power  with   which  he  gave  his  dissent 


ANTT-SLA  VER  Y  DA  YS.  73 

from  the  decision  of  Judge  Taney.     But  his  argu- 
ments were  overborne  by  the  majority  of  the  Court. 

All  these  aggressions  and  successes  of  the  slave- 
power  were  new  fuel  to  the  fire  of  the  anti-slavery 
agitation.  They  supplied  fresh  and  convincing  argu- 
ments for  the  Northern  agitators.  Everything  that 
the  slaveholders  did  prevented  the  anti-slavery  meet- 
ings from  becoming  commonplace.  Every  one  of  these 
gatherings  offered  some  new  grounds  for  showing  the 
evils  of  slavery,  and  the  wrongs  done  by  the  slave- 
power  to  the  North.  In  innumerable  meetings  held 
at  the  North  these  wrongs  were  described  and  ex- 
posed ;  and,  I  suppose  when  we  come  to  look  back  on 
it,  we  shall  say  there  never  was  a  people  educated  so 
thoroughly  in  so  short  a  time,  as  the  voters  of  the 
North  were,  to  see  the  evil,  the  wrongs  and  dangers 
of  slavery.  Perpetual  agitation  went  forward,  by  the 
activity  and  zeal  of  the  anti-slavery  orators  and 
writers.  They  published  papers  and  tracts,  held  con- 
ventions, and  took  every  opportunity  to  keep  this  sub- 
ject before  the  people.  For  instance,  on  the  first  of 
August,  the  anniversary  of  emancipation  in  the  West 
Indies,  they  would  hold  conventions  all  over  the  coun- 
try. Always,  too,  these  were  held  on  the  Fourth  of 
July,  when  they  would  read  the  famous  introductory 
sentence  to  the  Declaration  of  Independence.  "  We 
hold  these  truths  to  be  self-evident,  that  all  men  are 
created  equal,  and  endowed  by  their  Creator  with  in- 


7  4  ANTI-SLA  VER  Y  DA  YS. 

alienable  rights,  among  which  are  life,  liberty,  and  the 
pursuit  of  happiness."  Mr.  Emerson  once  said, 
"  Eloquence  is  dog-cheap  in  anti-slavery  meetings." 
At  another  time  he  spoke  of  the  "  enraged  eloquence" 
of  Faneuil  Hall.  Some  one  said  of  Luther,  that  his 
words  were  half  battles.  So  we  might  say  of  these 
meetings,  that  each  one  was  half  a  battle.  The  anti- 
slavery  men  welcomed  contradiction,  and  rejoiced  in 
the  opportunity  of  meeting  an  opponent.  If  any 
slaveholder  was  known  to  be  in  Boston,  he  was  invited 
to  come  upon  the  platform  and  state  his  views  ;  and 
there  were  always  plenty  of  people  to  answer  him. 
Garrison  and  his  friends  were  always  ready — always 
prepared  with  facts  and  arguments  ;  and  the  opponent 
whom  the  Lord  delivered  into  their  hands  was  usually 
much  to  be  pitied. 

Sometimes  a  man  would  innocently  beseech  them 
to  be  mild  and  calm  in  their  treatment  of  slavehold- 
ers. The  answer  to  this  would  be,  "  Suppose,  sir, 
your  wife  and  child  were  taken  from  you,  and  sent  to 
Alabama  to  be  the  slaves  of  any  brute  who  had  money 
enough  to  buy  them,  would  you  be  calm  then  ? 
Would  you  speak  gently,  and  say  that  in  your  opin- 
ion this  was  an  unwise  course,  and  not  altogether  de- 
sirable ?  We  are  arguing  the  cause  of  thousands  of 
husbands  and  fathers,  liable  at  any  moment  to  have 
their  families  torn  from  them.  To  be  calm  in  such  a 
cause  would  be  a  sin."      Sometimes  a   Southerner 


ANTI-SLA  VER  Y  DA  VS.  y  5 

would  come  forward,  declaring  the  slaves  happy,  well- 
treated  and  contented.  Immediately  the  anti-slavery 
orators  would  read  numerous  advertisements  in 
Southern  papers,  offering  rewards  for  runaway  slaves, 
alive  or  dead,  who  were  described  as  marked  with 
stripes,  and  mutilated,  showing  the  ill-treatment  they 
had  endured.  "  If  they  are  so  happy,  why  do  they 
run  away  ?  If  so  contented  and  well-behaved,  why 
are  they  beaten,  and  shot,  and  mutilated  ? " 

"The  "timid  good"  might  stand  aloof  from  these 
meetings,  but  the  mob  was  present,  and  there  was 
sure  to  be  a  crowd,  either  of  friends  or  foes,  and 
always  something  worth  hearing.  There  was  often 
disorder  and  tumult,  but  the  anti-slavery  speakers  on 
the  platform  were  perfctly  calm.  Some. of  them 
seemed  to  be  like  the  warhorse  in  the  Bcfok  of  Job, 
that  "  scented  the  battle  from  afar — the  tumult  and 
the  shouting."  These  men  delighted  in  the  fury  of 
this  battle.  I  remember  on  one  occasion  there  was 
an  anti-slavery  meeting  where  everything  seemed  to 
be  quiet  and  peaceful,  and  the  orators  were  listened 
to  with  much  attention.  Then  Stephen  Foster  sud- 
denly rose  and  said :  "  We  are  not  doing  our  duty. 
If  we  were  doing  our  duty  this  audience,  instead  of 
listening  to  us  so  quietly,  would  be  throwing  brick- 
bats at  us."  Charles  Burleigh,  in  the  middle  of  his 
speech  once,  had  a  rotten  egg  thrown  at  him,  which 
struck  him  in  the  face.     With  ready  wit,  as  he  calm- 


7  6  ANTI-SLA  VER  Y  DA  VS. 

ly  wiped  his  face,  he  said,  "  I  have  always  maintained 
that  pro-slavery  arguments  are  very  unsound."  There 
were  some  quite  rude  jokes  made,  and  a  good  deal  of 
fun — fun  made  of  the  abolitionists  as  well  as  of  their 
opponents.  They  could  enjoy  a  good  joke  even  at 
their  own  expense.  Mr.  Garrison  was  nearly  bald. 
Charles  C.  Burleigh  had  a  very  long  beard,  which 
came  almost  down  to  his  waist.  Once  in  the  midst 
of  a  most  earnest  discussion,  some  wag  cried  out, 
"  Burleigh  !  why  don't  you  cut  off  your  beard  and 
give  it  to  Garrison  to  make  a  wig  of  ? "  This,  of 
course,  caused  a  great  deal  of  fun.  On  the  platform 
you  would  always  see  Garrison ;  with  him  was  my 
classmate  and  friend,  Sam  May.  Stephen  S.  Foster 
was  always  there.  Sometimes  Mr.  Samuel  E.  Sewell 
was  to  be  seen,  who  was  one  of  the  earliest  to  join 
this  party.  He  was  with  Garrison  at  the  first  meet- 
ing, and  is  still  living  in  an  honored  old  age.  There, 
too,  one  saw  in  the  early  days  William  W.  White,  (a 
brother  of  Maria  White  Lowell,)  who  died  too  soon. 
He  was  a  very  brilliant  man,  and  always  made  very 
admirable  speeches.  Parker  Pilsbury,  James  Buffum, 
Arnold  Buffum,  Elizur  Wright,  Henry  C.  Wright, 
Abigail  Kelley,  Lucy  Stone,  Theo.  D.  Weld,  the  sis- 
ters Grimke,  from  South  Carolina ;  John  T.  Sargent, 
Mrs.  Chapman,  Mrs.  Lydia  M.  Child,  Fred  Douglas, 
Wm.  W.  Brown  and  Francis  Jackson.  The  last  was  . 
a  stern  Puritan,  conscientious,  upright,  clear-minded, 


ANTI-SLA  VER  Y  DA  YS.  7  y 

universally  respected.  Edmund  Quincy  also  was 
there,  and  he  never  spoke  without  saying  something 
that  had  a  touch  of  wit  as  well  as  of  logic.  Oliver 
Johnson  is  still  living,  and  he  was  one  of  the  very 
first  members  of  the  Society.  Theodore  Parker,  ? 
Samuel  J.  May,  John  Pierpont,  Chas.  L.  Stearns, 
Chas.  L.  Redwood,  Geo.  Thompson  (another  wonder- 
fully eloquent  man),  and,  above  all  Wendell  Phillips. 

I  have  no  doubt  I  have  omitted  some  whom  I  ought 
to  remember,  but  this  list  shows  what  men  and  women 
met  on  the  Garrison  platform  to  argue  this  cause.  All 
were  intrepid,  clear-headed,  ready  to  meet  and  answer 
any  opponent,  and  delighted  if  they  could  get  an  op- 
ponent on  the  platform  to  answer.  There  was  no 
such  excitement  to  be  had  anywhere  else  as  at  these 
meetings.  There  was  a  little  of  everything  going  on 
in  them.  Sometimes  crazy  people  would  come  in  and 
insist  on  taking  up  the  time  ;  sometimes  mobs  would 
interrupt  the  smooth  tenor  of  their  way  ;  but  amid  all 
disturbance  each  meeting  gave  us  an  interesting  and 
impressive  hour.  I  think  that  some  of  the  Garrisonian 
orators  had  the  keenest  tongues  ever  given  to  man. 
Stephen  S.  Foster  and  Henry  C.  Wright,  for  ex- 
ample, said  the  sharpest  things  that  were  ever  uttered. 
Their  belief  was  that  people  were  asleep,  and  the  only 
thing  to  be  done  was  to  rouse  them  ;  and  to  do  this  it 
was  necessary  to  cut  deep  and  not  to  spare  for  their 
crying.     The  more  angry  people  were  made  the  bet- 


7  8  A  NTI-SLA  VER  Y  DA  VS. 

ter  it  was  for  them.  The  titles  of  some  of  their  tracts 
indicate  this  purpose.  Pilsbury  wrote  one  called 
"  The  Church  the  Forlorn  Hope  of  Slavery  ; "  Foster 
another  called  "The  Church  the  Brotherhood  of 
Thieves." 

Some  pursued  a  different  course.  Among  these 
must  be  especially  named  Samuel  J.  May,  a  man  who 
united  in  a  remarkable  degree  perfect  courage  with 
entire  kindliness.  He  was  a  singular  example  of  the 
way  in  which  truth  can  be  spoken  in  love.  It  was  al- 
most impossible  to  resist  such  a  fine  union  of  gentle- 
ness and  strength.  The  motto  of  his  life  might  have 
been  the  words  which  I  once  saw  upon  the  great  organ 
in  the  cathedral  at  Pisa  :  "  Out  of  the  strong  cometh 
forth  sweetness."  * 

I  recollect  Mr.  May's  once  giving  me  an  account  of 
a  conversation  he  had  with  a  Southerner  at  the  house 
of  Henry  Colman,  in  Deerfield,  where  he  was  to  pass 
the  night.  Mr.  May  arrived  just  before  sundown, 
after  having  spent  the  day  at  an  anti-slavery  meeting. 
Mr.  Colman  met  him  at  the  door  and  said,  '*  My  dear 
Mr.  May,  I  hope  you  will  say  nothing  on  the  subject 
of  slavery  this  evening,  for  we  have  a  Southern  gen- 
tleman here  who  is  very  excitable  and  irritable,  and  it 
would  be  quite  unpleasant  to  have  a  discussion.     Mr. 

*  See  an  interesting  volume,  written  by  Mr.  May,  ^called  "  Some 
Recollections  of  the  Anti-Slavery  Conflict,"  Boston,  1S09  J  also;  "  Life 
of  S.  J.  May,"  by  Thomas  Mumford. 


ANTI-SLA  VER  Y  DA  VS.  y  9 

May  replied,  "  I  will  not  introduce  the  subject,  but  if 
I  am  asked  any  questions  I  shall  be  obliged  to  answer 
them  according  to  the  truth."  He  was  introduced  to 
this  Southerner,  and  sat  down  beside  him  in  the  room. 
On  the  other  side  of  the  Southerner  was  a  lady  who 
had  heard  that  Mr.  May  had  been  to  the  anti-slavery 
meeting ;  and,  leaning  forward  in  front  of  the  South- 
erner she  asked,  "  What  did  you  do  at  the  anti-slav- 
ery meeting  to-day  ?  "  Thereupon  Mr.  May  proceeded 
to  give  her  an  account  of  it,  so  arranging  what  he 
said  as  to  convey  to  this  Southern  gentleman  an  idea 
of  what  was  the  real  purpose  of  the  anti-slavery  peo- 
ple. He  spoke  in  such  a  way  as  to  disabuse  him  of 
the  notion  that  they  had  any  intention  of  exciting  an 
insurrection  among  the  slaves.  Their  appeal  was  to 
the  reason  and  conscience  of  the  slaveholder,  and  the 
things  of  which  they  were  often  accused  were  far 
from  their  thought.  He  observed  that  this  man  be- 
came interested  and  excited,  and  finally  turning  to 
him  "  Mr.  May,"  he  said,  "  I  should  like  to  know  what 
business  you  have  with  this  thing  at  all  ?  What  busi- 
ness is  it  of  yours,  sir  ?  It  is  our  own  affair  altogether. 
You  people  here  at  the  North  have  nothing  to  do  with 
it."  "  But  my  dear  sir,"  answered  Mr.  May,  very 
mildly,  "  you  do  not  believe,  certainly,  that  slavery  is 
right  ? "  "  No,  I  don't  think  it  is  right  in  the  ab- 
stract ;  but  you  don't  know  anything  about  it.  You 
are  doing  mischief  and  making  trouble  by  all  you  try 


80  ANTI-SLA  VER  Y  DA  YS. 

to  do."  Thereupon  Mr.  May  proceeded  to  argue  with 
him  in  his  gentle,  but  strong  manner,  and  finally  after 
they  had  been  talking  for  half  an  hour  or  more,  this 
Southerner  began  to  walk  up  and  down  the  room  with 
a  great  deal  of  excitement.  At  last  he  turned  and 
said  to  Mr.  May,  "  You  must  not  think  as  badly  of 
us  as  if  we  had  been  brought  up  at  the  North  and  had 
the  opportunity  of  hearing  these  arguments  year  after 
year."  "  Oh,  no,"  said  Mr.  May,  "  I  cannot  think  so 
badly  of  you,  considering  the  influences  you  have 
been  under  all  your  lives.  I  think  it  is  not  unnatural 
that  you  should  feel  as  you  do.  But  I  do  think 
this,  that  we  at  the  North,  who  have  always  enjoyed 
the  blessings  of  a  free  State,  ought  to  take  every  op- 
portunity in  our  power  of  doing  all  we  can  to  bring 
this  evil  system  to  an  end.  I  should  think  very  badly 
of  myself  if  I  did  not  do  so." 

Mr.  May,  while  in  Syracuse  was  one  of  the  mana- 
gers of  the  underground  railroad,  the  object  of  which 
was  to  enable  the  slaves  to  escape.  It  helped  only 
those  who  wanted  to  escape  ;  those  who  were  dissatis- 
fied with  their  condition,  and  who  were  willing  to  en- 
counter the  risks  of  getting  away.  There  were  anti- 
slavery  people  all  the  way  along  the  route — people 
willing  to  protect  these  fugitives  and  send  them  on  to 
the  next  station,  where  they  would  be  protected.  Be- 
fore a  great  while  had  passed,  this  became  so  well  or- 
ganized a  system,  that  these  station  masters  knew  just 


ANTI-SLA  VER  Y  DA  YS.  gr 

where  to  send  the  slaves  from  their  own  house  to  the 
next  station  on  the  road.  The  system  extended  from 
Kentucky  and  Virginia  across  Ohio  ;  from  Maryland 
through  Pennsylvania,  and  New  York  to  New  Eng- 
land and  Canada. 

There  were  many  people  in  the  slave  states,  even 
slaveholders,  who  were  willing  to  secrete  fugitives  if 
paid  enough  for  doing  it.  This  I  learned  from  a 
colored  woman  who  was  famous  for  having  got  off 
many  fugitives  from  the  South.  She  had  helped  so 
many  hundred  to  escape  that  they  called  her  "  Moses." 
She  once  passed  an  evening  at  my  house,  and  gave  us 
an  account  of  her  methods.  She  said  she  first  obtained 
enough  money,  then  went  to  Maryland,  where  she 
privately  collected  a  party  of  slaves  and  got  them  ready 
to  start.  She  first  satisfied  herself  that  they  had 
enough  courage  and  firmness  to  run  the  risks.  She 
next  made  arrangements  so  that  they  should  set  out 
on  Saturday  night,  as  there  would  be  no  opportunity 
on  Sunday  for  advertising  them,  so  that  they  had  that 
day's  start  on  their  way  north.  Then  she  had  places 
prepared  where  she  knew  she  could  be  sure  that  they 
could  be  protected  and  taken  care  of  if  she  had  the 
money  to  pay  for  that  protection.  When  she  was  at 
the  North  she  tried  to  raise  funds  until  she  got  a 
certain  amount,  and  then  went  south  to  carry  out  this 
plan.  She  always  paid  some  colored  man  to  follow 
after  the  person  who  put  up  the  posters  advertising 


8  2  ANTI-SLA  VER  Y  DA  YS. 

the  runaways,  and  pull  them  down  as  fast  as  they  were 
put  up,  so  that  about  five  minutes  after  each  was  up 
it  was  taken  away.  She  seemed  to  have  indomitable 
courage  herself,  and  a  great  deal  of  prudence.  She 
told  me  that  once  when  in  Baltimore,  she  found  a 
negro  cook,  a  woman  who  had  suffered  very  much, 
who  had  had  her  children  taken  from  her  and  sold, 
and  who  was  determined  to  escape.  She  wanted 
Moses  to  help  her.  Moses  rreplied?  "  If  you  are  willing 
to  come  with  me  I  will  take  you  across  to  Delaware. " 
So  they  went  upon  a  steamer  which  was  to  sail  from 
Baltimore  to  Delaware.  When  they  were  abroad  she 
told  the  woman  to  stay  in  one  part  of  the  boat,  by  one 
of  the  outside  guards,  and  she  herself  went  to  the 
clerk  and  asked  for  two  tickets  to  the  place  she  wished 
to  go.  He  looked  at  her  and  said, cc  I  do  not  know 
whether  we  can  let  you  have  them.  You  will  have  to 
wait  a  little  while."  She  went  back  very  much  alarmed. 
She  knew  that  if  there  was  any  investigation  made  it 
would  be  found  that  this  woman  was  a  slave,  and  she 
would  be  seized.  She  went  and  sat  down  by  the  side 
of  the  woman,  and  the  woman  said,  softly,  "  Have  you 
got  the  tickets  ?  "  Moses  made  no  reply.  "  I  looked 
straight  at  the  water,"  she  said,  "  and  a  great  darkness 
came  over  me.  All  at  once  everything  brightened 
again  and  I  saw  a  great  light  which  glowed  all  over 
the  river.  'Yes,  I  have  got  them  now,  I  am  sure  of 
it,'  I  replied."     After  a  little  while  the  clerk  came  to 


ANTI-SLA  VER  Y  DA  VS.  83 

her  and  said,  "  Here,  Aunty,  are  your  tickets,"  and 
she  succeeded  in  escaping  with  the  woman  through 
Delaware  to  New  Jersey. 

In  Boston  there  were  many  places  where  fugitives 
were  received  and  taken  care  of.  Every  anti-slavery 
man  was  ready  to  protect  them,  and  among  these  were 
some  families  not  known  to  be  anti-slavery.  My  neigh- 
bor and  friend,  Mr.  George  S.  Hillard,  was  an  United 
States  commissioner.  It  might  be  his  business  after 
the  slave  law  was  passed  to  issue  a  warrant  to  the 
marshal  for  the  capture  of  slaves.  But  Mrs.  Hillard, 
his  wife,  was  in  the  habit  of  putting  the  fugitives  in 
the  upper  chamber  of  their  own  house,  and  I  think 
Mr.  Hillard  was  aware  of  the  fact  and  never  interfered. 
There  was  once  a  colored  man,  a  fugitive,  put  in  this 
upper  room,  and  when  Mrs.  Hillard  went  in  she  found 
he  had  carefully  pulled  down  the  shades  of  the  window. 
She  told  him  she  did  not  think  there  was  any  danger 
of  his  being  seen  from  the  street.  M  Perhaps  not, 
Missis,"  he  replied,  "  but  I  do  not  want  to  spoil  the 
place."  He  knew  that  after  he  had  gone,  there  would 
come  some  one  else  who  would  need  to  be  protected. 
He  did  not  want  any  one  to  see  his  colored  face  there, 
lest  it  might  excite  suspicion,  to.  the  injury  of  his 
successors. 

Most  persons  have  heard  the  story  of  William  and 
Ellen  Crafts.  Ellen  Crafts  was  a  very  light  mulatto 
woman,  who  would  easily  pass  for  white.     She  was 


8  4  ANTI-SLA  VER  Y  DA  VS. 

nurse  in  a  family  in  South  Carolina,  and  did  not  think 
of  escaping.  She  was  married  ,to  a  man,  darker  than 
herself.  But  on  one  occasion  her  mistress  intended 
to  go  North,  and  wanted  to  take  this  colored  nurse. 
Ellen  Crafts  had  a  little  babe  of  her  own.  She  was 
expecting  to  take  her  infant  with  her,  till  her  mistress 
said,  "  You  don't  think  that  I  am  going  to  have  that 
child  with  me.  No,  indeed."  So  the  little  babe  was  left 
behind  and  died  during  its  mother's  absence.  When 
Ellen  got  home  she  made  up  her  mind  to  escape.  It 
took  her  a  good  while  to  make  her  plans.  At  last  she 
determined  to  disguise  herself  as  a  young  Southern 
gentleman  and  take  her  husband  as  a  body  servant. 
In  order  that  it  might  not  be  seen  that  she  had  no 
beard  she  professed  to  have  great  suffering  from  her 
teeth,  and  had  a  poultice  put  round  her  face.  In  order 
that  she  might  not  be  asked  to  write  she  had  her  right 
arm  in  a  sling,  as  though  an  injury  had  befallen  it- 
So  they  got  off  together  one  morning.  They  reached 
Baltimore  safely,  although  she  noticed  in  the  train  a 
gentleman  who  had  often  seen  her  at  her  master's 
house.  When  she  got  to  Baltimore  she  had  to  meet 
the  difficulty  of  getting  out  of  a  slave  state  into  a  free 
one,  for  which  a  special  pass  for  her  servant  was 
necessary.  She  had  none,  of  course,  but  she  assumed 
the  haughty  airs  :>t  a  Southerner,  and  when  they  de- 
clined to  give  her  a  ticket  for  her  servant,  she  said, 
"  Why,  what  can  I  do  <  You  see  my  arm ;  you  see  my 


ANTI-SLA  VER  Y  DA  YS.  8  5 

face  in  this  condition  !  I  must  have  him  to  take  care 
of  me."  So  by  dint  of  perseverance  she  succeeded, 
and  they  arrived  finally  in  Boston.  The  master  of 
William  Crafts  heard  that  he  was  in  Boston,  and  sent 
on  papers  to  have  him  arrested  under  the  fugitive 
slave  law.  It  was  understood  that  he  was  to  be  ar- 
rested, and  he  was  prepared  to  defend  himself.  He 
said  he  would  kill  the  United  States  marshal  if  he 
attempted  to  arrest  him.  But  some  of  his  friends  told 
him  that  this  would  be  a  very  bad  thing  for  his  race, 
and  would  only  make  their  condition  worse.  Then  it 
was  arranged  that  he  should  be  taken  to  the  house  of 
Ellis  Gray  Loring  at  Brookline,  Mass.  Mr.  Loring 
happened  to  be  away,  and  the.  honorable  nature  of 
Crafts  was  seen  when  he  found  that  Mr.  Loring  was 
not  at  home.  He  asked  to  see  Mrs,  Loring,  and  said 
to  her,  "  I  cannot  stay  when  your  husband  is  away.'* 
"  Oh,"  said  Mrs.  Loring,  "  nothing  would  suit  him 
better  than  to  have  you  stay."  "  That  may  be  so," 
said  Crafts,  "  but  he  does  not  know  that  I  am  here, 
and  if  anything  bad  happens  to  you  or  to  him,  I  shall 
feel  that  1  have  done  very  wrong."  It  was  with  dif- 
ficulty that  he  was  at  last  persuaded  by  Mrs.  Loring 
to  remain. 

There  were  a  great  many  people  who  could  never 
be  made  to  believe  that  it  was  right  to  return  a 
fugitive.  If  a  man  had  the  courage,  determination 
and  love  of  liberty  which  would  enable  him  to  encoun- 


86  ANTI-SLA  VER  Y  DA  VS. 

ter  the  dangers  of  escaping,  they  thought  it  was  the 
height  of  meanness  to  send  him  back.  Even  some 
Southerners  took  that  view.  I  recollect  when  I  lived 
in  Kentucky,  there  was  a  friend  of  mine,  Mr,  Good- 
win from  Plymouth,  who  had  hired  a  little  girl  named 
Milly.  She  had  grown  up  with  him  and  his  wife,  and 
Mrs.  Goodwin  had  taught  her  to  read  and  write,  to  sew, 
and  given  her  a  knowledge  of  housekeeping.  She  was 
at  that  time  seventeen  or  eighteen  years  old.  The 
owner  of  the  girl  was  an  English  gentleman,  named 
Booth,  who  had  lived  in  Kentucky  for  many  years.  I 
was  sitting  in  Mr.  Goodwin's  office  one  day  with  Mr. 
Booth,  when  a  letter  came  to  Mr.  Goodwin  from  his 
wife,  in  which  was  enclosed  a  letter  to  herself  from 
Milly.  Milly  said  that  she  had  decided  to  go  away 
to  a  free  state.  Mr.  Goodwin  read  aloud  Milly's 
letter  :  "  It  breaks  my  heart,"  said  the  letter,  "  to  leave 
you,  my  dear  mistress.  I  shall  never  find  so  good  a 
friend  in  the  world  as  you  have  been  to  me,  never  any 
one  that  I  shall  love  so  much.  But  you  have  taught 
me  many  things,  and  among  them  the  value  of  free- 
dom. All  the  education  you  have  given  me  has  gone 
to  make  me  feel  that  I  have  no  right  to  remain  a 
slave  when  I  can  be  free.  I  am  obliged  to  leave  you. 
I  hope  I  may  some  time  see  you  again,  but  I  do  not 
know.  I  want  you  to  know  how  grateful  I  am  and 
always  shall  be  for  all  your  kindness." 

While  this  letter  was  being  read  aloud  I  watched 


ANTI-SLA  VER  Y  DAYS  87 

the  face  of  the  owner  of  this  girl.  It  was  a  hard  face 
and  I  could  not  tell  what  he  was  thinking  or  feeling. 
This  was  a  loss  to  him  of  from  $1,500  to  $2,000. 
When  the  letter  was  through  he  turned  to  me  and 
said,  "  Mr.  Clarke,  if  you  or  I  had  been  in  the  girl's 
place  we  should  have  done  the  same  thing.  I  do  not 
blame  her.  I  shall  not  try  to  get  her  back."  That 
is  the  way  honorable  men  at  the  South  felt  in  those 
days. 

I  recollect,  after  Burns  had  been  arrested  in  Boston, 
and  taken  south,  I  met  Marshal  Barnes,  formerly 
United  States  Marshal,  under  a  Democratic  adminis- 
tration, and  he  said  to  me,  "  Friend  Devens  has  made 
a  mistake."  "  How  so  ?  "  said  I,  n  When  I  was  a 
marshal,  and  they  tried  to  make  me  find  their  slaves, 
I  would  say,  '  I  don't  know  where  your  niggers  are, 
but  I  will  see  if  I  can  find  out.'  So  I  always  went  to 
Garrison's  office  and  said,  '  I  want  you  to  find  such 
and  such  a  negro  ;  tell  me  where  he  is.'  The  next 
thing  I  knew,  the  fellow  would  be  in  Canada." 
But  if  it  is  true,  as  Marshal  Barnes  said,  that  Judge 
Devens  made  a  mistake,  he  did  it  honestly,  and  with 
an  honorable  purpose.  He  thought,  when  he  had 
taken  the  oath  of  United  States  Marshal,  he  ought 
not  to  shrink  from  the  duties  of  the  office.  He  made 
a  noble  atonement  for  this  error,  if  error  it  was.  Be- 
fore he  went  to  the  war,  he  called  on  Mrs.  Lydia 
Maria  Child,  and  told  her  that  he  was  in  negotiation 


88  ANTI-SLA  VER  Y  DA  VS. 

with  the  owner  of  Burns  to  have  him  ransomed  and 
brought  north,  and  made  free.  The  negotiation  was 
not  quite  complete,  and  he  would  deposit  $1,800  with 
Mrs.  Child  to  settle  the  thing  ;  which  she  did.  Burns 
thus  became  a  free  man,  General  Devens  having  paid 
the  full  amount  to  his  master. 

One  of  the  most  interesting  stories  of  the  fugitives, 
was  that  of  a  man  called  Father  Henson,  who  has 
just  died  at  the  age  of  ninety-five  years.  He  was 
often  in  Boston,  and  was  much  esteemed  and  liked  by 
all  who  knew  him.  He  was  brought  up  as  a  slave  in 
Virginia.  He  grew  to  be  a  young  man  without  ever 
hearing  a  sermon.  The  first  one  he  heard,  at  a  camp- 
meeting  converted  him,  and  made  of  him  a  religious 
man.  That  single  sermon  did  more  for  him  than  a 
great  many  for  the  most  of  us.  On  his  way  home 
from  the  meeting,  the  sense  of  God's  presence,  and 
his  own  needs,  came  over  him  with  such  power,  that 
he  knelt  down  in  a  corner  of  the  fence  and  prayed. 
Then  light  and  peace  came  to  him,  and  he  rose  a  new 
man.  He  was  entirely  trusted  by  his  master,  who, 
having  got  into  some  pecuniary  trouble,  and  being 
afraid  that  the  sheriff  would  come  and  attach  the 
slaves  on  his  plantation,  called  Henson  and  said  to 
him,  "  I  am  going  to  trust  you  with  something  which 
is  very  important.  You  know  I  have  a  brother  in 
Kentucky.  I  am  going  to  send  my  slaves  to  Ken- 
tucky under  your  care.     I  will  give  you  this  money  to 


ANTI-SLA  VER  Y  DA  YS.  89 

use  by  the  way."  Henson  took  these  twenty  or  thirty 
slaves  through  Virginia,  to  the  Ohio  river,  and  there 
bought  a  flat  boat  and  went  down  the  river.  He 
stopped  at  Cincinnati,  where,  if  he  had  chosen,  he 
could  have  escaped  with  all  of  them,  but  he  felt  that 
he  had  been  trusted,  and  must  fulfil  the  trust.  When 
he  told  me  this,  he  said,  "  If  the  Lord  will  forgive  me 
for  not  setting  them  free,  and  I  ever  have  another 
opportunity,  I  am  quite  sure  I  shall  do  better  than 
that."  He  took  the  slaves  on  to  Kentucky,  and  there 
delivered  them  over  to  the  Kentucky  master,  and 
there  they  remained.  After  a  while  some  of  them 
were  sold  to  the  South  to  pay  the  debts  of  the  Virginia 
master.  Henson  being  a  kind  of  Methodist  preacher, 
was  sometimes  allowed  to  go  away  and  preach,  and 
after  preaching  he  would  take  up  a  little  collection. 
This  he  would  lay  by  to  purchase  freedom.  At  last 
he  went  to  his  master  in  Virginia,  to  see  if  he  could 
buy  his  liberty.  At  first  the  owner  refused  his  consent, 
but  his  son  said,  "  Father  !  remember  all  Henson  has 
done  ;  you  ought  to  let  him  pay  for  his  freedom."  The 
master  finally  consented,  or  pretended  to  consent.  He 
took  the  money,  and  gave  him  his  free  papers,  and 
Henson  set  out  to  return  to  Kentucky.  On  his  way 
down  the  river  the  boat  came  opposite  to  the  planta- 
tion; but  instead  of  landing  at  his  master's  house,  he 
went  ashore  near  his  own  cabin.  When  he  got  there 
his  wife  said,  "  There  is  news  about  you."     "  What  is 


9  o  ANTI-SLA  VER  Y  DA  YS. 

it  ? "  "  Some  of  the  servants  overheard  them  talking 
in  the  big  house.  Master  said  that  you  thought  you 
had  bought  yourself,  but  that  he  was  going  to  take 
your  papers  and  keep  them,  and  you  would  not  be  free 
till  you  had  paid  a  good  deal  more."  Henson  said, 
"  That  is  too  bad.  Wife,  look  here  !  I  did  have  my 
papers  !  I  had  them  when  I  was  in  Cincinnati.  I  saw 
them  there  in  my  bag.  If  you  find  them  there,  do 
what  you  please  with  them."  She  took  the  papers 
and  put  them  between  two  slabs  of  board,  and  buried 
them.  The  next  morning  he  went  to  the  master's 
house,  when  the  horn  sounded  to  call  the  servants  to 
work.  The  master  called  out.  "You  have  got 
back,  have  you,  Henson  ?  What  did  you  do  ? 
Have  you  got  your  free  papers  ? "  "  Oh,  master,  I 
had  them  when  I  was  in  Cincinnati.  I  saw  them  in 
my  bag  there."  "  What !  lost  them  ?  Where  did 
you  get  off  ?  "  u  I  landed  near  my  cabin,  and  walked 
through  the  woods  to  it."  a  You  must  have  lost  them 
on  the  way.  Go  back  and  see  if  you  can  find  them." 
"  Do  you  think  so,  master,  I'll  go  and  look.  So  he 
went  back  and  pretended  to  search  diligently  for  the 
papers ;  but,  naturally,  he  did  not  see  them  anywhere. 
The  next  thing  that  happened  was  that  the  master 
determined  to  send  him  down  the  river  with  his  son, 
taking  charge  of  aflatboat  loaded  with  bacon  and  corn. 
The  understanding  was,  that  after  the  cargo  and  the 
flatboat  were  sold,  Henson  was  to  be  sold  in  New 


ANTI-SLA  VER  Y  DA  VS.  9 1 

Orleans,  away  from  wife  and  children  and  home.  That 
came  to  his  knowledge,  and  made  him  almost  crazy. 
On  the  way  down  the  river,  he  and  his  young 
master  being  alone — his  master  being  asleep — he 
sat  and  thought  of  all  the  wrongs  he  had  suffered  ; 
and  how  hard  after  all  he  had  done,  that  he  should  be 
so  treated.  He  could  bear  it  no  longer.  He  took  the 
axe  in  his  hand,  intending  to  kill  his  young  master. 
As  he  approached  the  place,  he  seemed  to  hear  a  voice 
saying,  "  Henson,  will  you  throw  it  all  away  ?  will 
you  throw  it  all  away  ?  "  and  he  understood  that  some 
voice  from  Heaven  was  asking  him  if  he  would  throw 
away  all  the  good  he  had  tried  to  do,  by  this  act  of 
violence.  He  threw  the  axe  aside,  and  went  back  to 
his  place,  and  said,  "  I  leave  it  all  to  you,  Lord ;  let  it 
be  done  as  you  will ;  I  leave  it  all  to  you."  When 
they  reached  New  Orleans,  and  the  cargo  had  been 
sold,  it  so  chanced,  or  it  came  by  Providence,  that  the 
young  man  was  taken  ill  with  yellow  fever ;  and 
when  he  was  well  enough  to  go  North,  he  said,  "  You 
must  go  back  with  me,  Henson ;  I  must  have  you  as 
a  nurse."  So  he  went  back  to  Kentucky.  When  he 
reached  home  he  said  to  his  wife,  "  Now,  wife,  you 
must  do  as  you  think  best,  but  as  for  me,  I  am  bound 
for  freedom."  His  wife  said  she  would  go,  too  ;  and 
as  they  had  some  small  children,  it  was  arranged  that 
they  should  have  a  bag  made  big  enough  to  hold  the 
two  children.     He  had,  also,  some  stilts  made  in  order 


92 


ANTI-SLA  VER  Y  DA  YS. 


to  escape  the  scent  of  bloodhounds.  He  practised 
every  night  walking  on  the  stilts  and  carrying  the 
little  children.  When  the  time  came  for  going,  they 
all  went  up  the  big  chimney  of  the  cabin  to  the  roof, 
got  on  their  stilts  and  walked  away,  carrying  the  little 
ones  in  the  bag,  until  they  reached  a  stream.  They 
went  down  the  brook  to  the  river,  crossed  it  in  a  skiff 
that  he  had  prepared,  and  in  that  way  they  es- 
caped, 

These  fugitives  stories  produced  a  ^reat  effect  on 
all  who  heard  them.  It  was  impossible  to  convince 
the  people  that  it  was  right  to  send  back  to  slavery 
men  who  were  so  desirous  of  freedom  as  to  run  such 
risks.  All  our  education,  from  boyhood  up  to  man- 
hood, had  taught  us  to  believe  that  it  was  the  duty  of 
all  men  to  struggle  for  freedom.  "  Give  me  liberty, 
or  give  me  death."  These  men  took  their  lives  in 
their  hands.  They  were  pursued  by  bloodhounds, 
exposed  to  famine.  They  were  frozen  and  starved 
while  hiding  in  the  swamps.  If  caught,  they  were 
subjected  to  most  severe  punishments.  They  dared 
it  all,  and  finally,  if  some  of  them  escaped,  ought  they 
to  be  sent  back  again  ?  The  human  conscience,  reason, 
and  heart,  all  said  "  No," 

I  was  once,  with  my  wife,  in  Columbus,  Ohio,  and 
having  a  day  to  spare,  we  employed  it  in  visiting  the 
public  institutions.  Among  other  places  we  went  to 
the  Penitentiary,  and  were  introduced  by  the  warden 


ANTI-SLA  VER  Y  DA  VS.  93 

to  a  colored  man  who  had  escaped  from  Alabama. 
He  had  taken  a  whole  year  in  coming  from  Alabama 
to  Cincinnati.  He  had  travelled  only  in  the  night, 
hiding  in  the  woods  during  the  day.  He  had  nothing 
to  eat  but  what  he  could  get  from  the  fields,  sometimes 
finding  a  chicken,  green  corn,  or  perhaps  a  small  pig. 
At  last  he  reached  Cincinnati.  Then  he  thought  he 
was  in  a  free  city,  and  that  he  was  safe.  He  went 
around  to  get  something  to  do,  and  was  told  by  a  man 
who  had  a  horse  to  sell  that  he  would  give  him  ten 
dollars  to  sell  it.  It  was  a  stolen  horse.  The  poor 
fellow  was  arrested  as  a  thief,  and  sent  to  the  peniten- 
tiary. The  warden  told  me  he  had  no  doubt  the  man's 
story  was  true,  and  it  was  his  intention  to  get  him 
pardoned  by  the  Governor.  Meantime  the  lawyer 
who  had  undertaken  to  defend  him,  had  written  to 
the  colored  man  once  or  twice  that  he  should  try  for 
a  pardon;  but  the  warden  feared  it  was  the  object  of 
this  lawyer  to  turn  the  fugitive  over  to  his  master,  and 
so  obtain  a  reward.  "  But,"  said  the  warden,  "  I  shall 
not  allow  him  to  do  so.  When  the  time  comes  for 
the  Governor  to  pardon  him,  he  will  go  at  once  to 
Canada."  A  month  after  this  we  were  in  Buffalo,  at 
a  hotel.  A  waiter  came  behind  my  chair  and  asked 
if  he  could  see  us  in  our  room.  It  proved  to  be  this 
man.  I  asked  him  why  he  was  not  in  Canada.  He 
said  he  had  been  to  Canada,  but  there  was  so  little 
means  of  getting  a  support  there  that  he  had  decided 


94  ANTI-SLA  VER  Y  DA  YS 

to  come  to  Buffalo,  and  as  soon  as  he  got  enough  to 
buy  a  small  farm  he  would  go  back. 

There  was  one  fugitive  called  "  Box  Brown,"  be- 
cause he  had  himself  packed  up  in  a  wooden  box  and 
was  brought  thus  from  Virginia  to  Pennsylvania. 

Another  man,  Edward  Davis,  escaped  under  the 
guards  of  a  teamer  which  left  Charleston  for  Phila- 
delphia. H~  remained  under  the  guards  during  a 
large  part  of  the  night  until  he  was  nearly  drowned. 
Finding  he  could  encu;;  it  no  longer,  he  called  out  to 
the  sailors.  On  reaching  Philadelphia  he  was  turned 
over  to  the  police  and  sent  back  to  slavery. 

Mr.  May,  in  his  "  Recollections/'  has  given  an  ac- 
count of  the  fugitives  who  often  were  in  his  house  in 
Syracuse,  N.  Y.  They  came  from  all  the  Southern 
States,  and  arrived  at  all  hours  of  the  night.  They 
were  often  very  dirty  and  squalid  ;  but  to  be  received 
by  that  benign  and  kindly  friend,  whose  very  look  was 
a  benediction,  must  have  been  like  entering  Heaven. 
He  tells  of  one  man  who  refused  to  enter  the  house, 
saying,  "  O,  Massa,  not  fit."  "  No/'  answered  the 
philanthropist,  tc  you  are  not  now,  but  soon  shall  be.'' 
So  taking  into  the  barn  a  tub  of  warm  water,  soap, 
towels,  and  a  suit  of  clothes,  he  made  him  wash  him- 
self thoroughly,  throw  all  his  clothes  on  the  dunghill, 
and  dress  in  the  suit  of  clean  clothes.  Another 
young  colored  man  arrived  well-dressed,  and  with  a 
soft  hand.      He  had  been  employed  to  drive  his  mis- 


A  NTI-SLA  VER  Y  DA  VS.  g  5 

tress  and  daughters,  and  wait  on  the  table.  He  had 
been  treated  kindly,  and  taught  to  read  by  his  young 
mistress  ;  but  he  learned  that  he  was  to  be  sold,  and 
so  ran  away.  Another  day  there  came  a  well-dressed 
young  lady  of  so  light  a  color  that  she  could  pass  for 
white.  She  had  been  employed  as  chambermaid  on  a 
boat,  and  had  laid  up  money  given  her  in  presents, 
but  was  about  to  be  sold,  and  so  she  escaped  in  an 
English  ship  to  New  York,  and  was  forwarded  from 
there  to  Syracuse  by  the  underground  road,  and  was 
then  sent  by  Mr.  May  to  Canada. 

When  those  who  helped  fugitives  were  asked  why 
they  did  so,  they  referred  to  cases  in  history  to  show 
that  it  had  always  been  considered  a  duty  to  shelter 
fugitives.  There  was  the  story  in  Herodotus  of  the 
message  sent  by  the  Athenians  to  the  oracle  at  Del- 
phos,  to  ask  if  they  should  protect  fugitives  from  the 
great  king  even  at  the  risk  of  war.  The  oracle  said, 
"No!  send  them  back."  The  messengers,  seeing 
that  birds  had  built  their  nests  in  the  temple,  began 
to  pull  them  down.  The  priestess  asked  why  they 
disturbed  these  suppliants.  "  Because  you  tell  us  to 
send  away  our  suppliants."  "  I  did  so,"  answered  the 
oracle,  "  but  it  was  because  you  have  offended  me, 
and  I  wished  you  to  suffer  the  penalty  which  the  Gods 
will  inflict  on  you,  if  you  refuse  to  protect  your  sup- 
pliants." So,  too,  there  was  the  story  of  Sir  John 
Jervis,   Lord  St.  Vincent,  who  was  asked  by  a  bio 


96  ANTI-SLA  VER  Y  DA  YS. 

grapher  what  he  considered  the  chief  exploit  of  his 
life.  "  I  was  once/'  he  answered,  "  lying  in  the  har- 
bor of  Algiers,  and  two  slaves  swam  from  the  shore 
and  came  on  board.  The  Dey  of  Algiers  demanded 
their  surrender.  I  refused.  He  threatened  to  order 
his  forts  to  fire  on  my  vessel.  I  replied  that  on  the 
first  shot  fired,  I  would  place  my  ship  abreast  of  the 
fort  and  blow  it  to  atoms.  1  heard  no  more  of  the 
matter."  This  action  pleased  the  great  naval  com- 
mander more  than  the  victory  which  brought  him  his 
earldom. 

Those  who  defended  slavery  were  accustomed  to 
speak  of  the  free  colored  people  as  idle,  as  beggars 
and  criminals.  But  this  was  a  libel.  You  seldom 
saw  a  colored  person  begging  in  the  Northern  cities, 
and  the  criminal  statistics  showed  that  in  proportion 
to  their  numbers  few  were  committed  to  the  prisons. 
In  Cincinnati,  in  1851,  there  were  many  colored  peo- 
ple who  possessed  a  considerable  amount  of  property. 
One  of  the  best  hotels,  the  Dumas  House,  was  owned 
and  managed  by  colored  people.  One  of  them  had 
the  best  shop  for  family  groceries.  Another  was  the 
best  photographer.  So  it  probably  was  in  other  cities. 
I,  however,  know  that  this  was  the  case  in  Cincin- 
nati, having  spent  some  days  in  investigating  the  con- 
dition of  the  colored  people  in  1851.  I  recollect  ask- 
ing about  their  habits  of  temperance,  and  was  told 
that  at  one  time  nearly  all  the  colored  people  of  Cin- 


ANTI-SLA  VER  Y  DA  VS.  9  7 

cinnati  belonged  to  the  Temperance  Society,  having 
been  induced  to  join  it  by  the  generous  and  devoted 
labors  among  them  of  Theodore  D.  Weld,  a  Divinity 
Student  in  Lane  Seminary, 


93 


ANTISLA  VER  Y  DA  YS. 


CHAPTER  IV. 

FRIENDS     AND     OPPOSERS     IN     THE     FREE-STATES,    OP 
THE    ANTI-SLAVERY   MOVEMENT. 

'*  New  occasions  teach  new  duties.  Time  makes  ancient  good  un- 
couth, 

They  must  upward  still  and  onward  who  would  keep  abreast  with 
Truth. 

Lo  !  before  us  gleam  her  camp-fires  !  we  ourselves  must  Pilgrims  be, 

Launch  our  Mayflower,  and  steer  boldly  through  the  desperate  winter 

sea." 

Lowell. 

The  subject  of  this  chapter  is  the  friends  of  the 
anti-slavery  movement  and  its  opposers.  We  will 
begin  with  those  who  opposed  it.  In  the  former 
chapter  I  mentioned  how  many  influences  were  com- 
bined to  resist  anti-slavery.  Some  of  these  were 
natural  and  inevitable.  There  was  the  natural  con- 
servatism of  age  ;  there  was  the  fear  of  change  ;  the 
dread  of  danger  to  the  Union  ;  the  conviction  that  we 
had  made  a  contract  with  the  South,  and  had  no  right 
to  violate  our  contract.  From  such  considerations  as 
these,  and  from  the  belief  that  the  anti-slavery  men 
were  mad  fanatics,  who  cared  not  what  means  they 
used   to   attain    their  end,  there  were  found  in  the 


ANTI-SLA  VER  V  DA  VS.  99 

North  many  very  respectable,  kind-hearted  and  con- 
scientious people,  resisting  tor  a  long  time  the  anti- 
slavery  movement.  Dr.  Channing  found  fault  with 
the  bitterness  and  violence  of  the  Garrison  party. 
When  Mr.  Garrison  declared  the  Constitution  of  the 
United  States  "  a  covenant  with  death  and  an  agree- 
ment with  hell,"  when  Wendell  Phill'ps  uttered  his 
"  curse  on  the  Constitution,"  when  the  Church  was 
called  "  a  brotherhood  of  thieves/'  it  was  natural 
enough  for  those  who  looked  from  the  outside  to  think 
the  movement  a  fanaticism.  Yet  on  the  othet  hand, 
how  natural  it  was  for  the  abolitionists  to  use  any 
language,  and  seize  any  weapon  which  would  rouse  a 
generation  asleep,  over  the  awful  iniquities  and  dan- 
gers of  this  evil  system.  They  had  to  cry  aloud  and 
spare  not.  If  they  called  the  indifferent  and  hostile 
community  "  a  generation  of  vipers,"  John  the  Bap- 
tist had  done  the  same.  The  gentle  Jesus  called  the 
Pharisees,  "  Hypocrites,"  "  blind  guides, '  "  children 
of  hell,"  "  tombs  fair  on  the  outside  but  inwardly  full 
of  dead  men's  bones,"  "  serpents,"  "  generation  of 
vipers."  No  one  can  understand  the  terrible  severity 
of  the  abolitionists,  who  does  not  know  what  the  .'ior- 
rors  of  slavery  were,  with  which,  however,  they  had 
become  more  familiar  than  the  slaveholders  them- 
selves. I  recollect  reading  for  the  first  time,  in  Ken- 
tucky, Theodore  D.  Weld's  "  American  Slavery  as  it 
is  ;  or,  Testimony  of  a  Thousand  Witnesses  ;  "  and  I 


I  oo  ANTI-SLA  VER  Y  DA  VS. 

still  feel  the  sickening  sensation  of  suffering  which  it 
caused  me.  It  was  long  before  I  could  get  over  the 
fearful  impression.  Another  work  was  Frederick 
Law  Olmstead's  travels  through  the  Southwestern 
States,  containing  a  description  of  the  way  in  which 
the  slaves  were  treated.  Other  books  were,  "  The 
Fugitive  Slave  Law  and  its  Victims,"  a  tract  pub- 
lished by  the  Anti-Slavery  Society.  "  The  New 
Reign  of  Terror,"  and  Stroud's  "  Laws  of  Slavery," 
which  last  showed  slavery  not  as  it  was  practised  by 
cruel  and  brutal  masters,  but  as  the  laws  of  the  Slave 
States  made  it. 

I  give  a  few  extracts  from  this  work,  the  authenti- 
city of  which  was  never  questioned: — 

"  Every  assemblage  of  negroes  for  the  purpose  of 
religious  worship,  when  such  worship  is  conducted  by 
a  negro,  shall  be  an  unlawful  assembly,  and  a  justice 
may  issue  his  warrant  to  an  officer  or  other  person, 
requiring  him  to  enter  any  place  where  such  assem- 
blage may  be,  and  seize  any  negro  therein,  and  he  or 
any  other  justice  may  order  such  negro  to  be  punished 
with  stripes." — Code  of  Virgina,  1849. 

By  the  laws  of  several  of  the  slaveholding  States 
manumitted  and  other  free  persons  of  color,  however 
respectable  their  character,  might  he  arrested  when 
in  the  prosecution  of  lawful  business,  and  if  documen- 
tary evidence  of  their  right  to  freedom  could  not  be 
produced  by  them,  they  were  thrust  into  prison  by 


ANTI-SLAVERY  DAYS.  IOi 

law,  and  advertised  and  sold  as  runaway  slaves. 
(Laws  of  Maryland  and  Mississippi).  "  If  a  slave  was 
found  beyond  the  limits  of  the  town  in  which  he  lived, 
or  off  the  plantation  where  he  was  usually  employed, 
without  the  company  of  a  white  person,  or  without 
the  written  permission  of  his  master  or  employer,  any 
person  might  apprehend  and  punish  him  with  a  whip 
on  the  bare  back,  and  if  he  should  assail  and  strike 
such  white  person,  he  might  be  lawfully  killed." — 
(Laws  of  South  Carolina,  Brevard's  Digest). 

Or  you  may  read  if  you  please  the  description  of 
slavery  on  her  husband's  plantation,  given  by  Mrs. 
Frances  Anne  Kemble  :  or  you  may  read  the  stories 
told  by  the  fugitives  in  the  "  Life  of  Isaac  T.  Hopper." 
Even  now,  when  it  is  all  over,  the  flesh  creeps,  and 
the  blood  curdles  in  the  veins,  at  the  account  of  the 
dreadful  cruelties  practised  on  the  slaves  in  many 
parts  of  the  South.  I  would  advise  no  one  to  read 
such  histories  to-day  unless  his  nerves  are  very  well 
strung.  What  was  it  then  when  the  stories  were  told 
by  the  fugitives  themselves  ?  What  was  it  when  the 
cries  of  the  sufferers  were  going  up  every  hour  ? 
When  the  slaveholders  were  adding  new  territory  to 
defile  with  blood  ?  Under  such  conditions  you  could 
hardly  expect  from  those  who  knew  these  facts,  mod- 
erate language  and  soft  words.  The  anti-slavery 
men  were  like  a  cannon  ball  which  flies  straight  to  its 
mark  and  shatters  everything  in  its  way.     They  were 


I  r  2  ANTISLA  VER  Y  DA  VS. 

terribly  in  earnest,  and  like  Luther,  every  one  of  their 
words  was  half  a  battle. 

Let  me  give  a  few  examples  of  the  fanaticism  of 
the  other  side ;  of  the  bitterness  and  narrowness 
of  the  opposition  to  the  abolitionists  in  the  Northern 
States. 

Take  the  case  of  Miss  Prudence  Crandall,  a  re- 
spectable white  lady,  and  a  member  ol  the  Society  of 
Friends.  In  1832,  she  opened  a  school  for  girls  in 
Canterbury,  Conn.  A  colored  girl  applied  for  admis- 
sion to  the  school ;  there  was  a  violent  opposition  to 
her  admission,  and  when  Miss  Crandall  refused  to  dis- 
miss her,  the  white  girls  left.  It  was  then  made  a 
school  for  colored  girls.  Miss  Crandall  then  became 
the  object  of  insult  and  persecution  from  her  neigh- 
bors, and  they  tried  to  expel  her  by  law  from  the  town. 

Failing  in  this,  they  had  a  law  passed  by  the  Legis- 
lature, that  no  school  for  colored  people  should  be 
opened  in  the  State,  to  which  any  colored  pupils  from 
outside  of  the  State  should  come.  Miss  Crandall  was 
arrested  and  put  into  jail  because  she  was  willing  to 
help  educate  respectable  and  well-behaved  colored 
girls.  Mr.  Samuel  J.  May,  who  lived  in  an  adjacent 
town,  defended  her  in  her  loneliness,  and  stood  by  her 
through  it  all.  Arthur  Tappan,  of  New  York,  sent 
money  to  secure  counsel  for  her.  After  she  was  re- 
leased on  bail,  the  people  continued  to  molest  her. 
Even  the  physician  refused  to  visit  her  house  when 


ANTTSLA  VER  Y  DAYS.  :    j 

there  was  sickness  there.  The  trustees  of  the  church 
in  the  town  refused  to  let  her  bring  her  children  to 
the  house  of  God.  When  she  was  tried  they  did  not 
succeed  in  convicting  her,  but  so  much  violence  was 
threatened,  and  so  much  terror  was  caused  to  the 
young  girls  in  her  family,  that,  by  the  advice  of  her 
friends,  she  closed  her  school  and  sent  home  the 
children.  And  all  this  happened,  not  in  the  slave 
States,  but  in  New  England,  among  the  descendants 
of  the  Puritans.  In  1836,  Edward  Everett,  Gover--*? 
nor  of  Massachusetts,  an  eminent  scholar  and  a  true 
patriot,  as  was  afterward  shown  in  the  civil  war,  sent 
a  message  to  the  Legislature  suggesting  that  some 
legislative  action  should  be  taken  to  prevent  the  anti- 
slavery  agitation  in  Massachusetts,  when  calculated 
to  stir  up  agitation  in  the  South.  The  members  of 
the  Anti-Slavery  Society  asked  to  be  heard  before  a 
committee,  to  which  this  part  of  the  message  was 
referred.  They  had  a  hearing,  and  Mr.  George  Lunt,^e 
0:  Newbiirvpcrt.  was  :r.:.:rrr. .1::  ::'  :*.:e  ;:~::v.:::ee.  ;.:..i 
the  meeting  was  addressed  by  Mr.  Samuel  J.  May, 
Ellis  Gray  Loring,  Garrison,  and  Professor  Charles 
Follen.  The  last  was  a  scholar  and  friend  of  liberty, 
who  was  exiled  irom  Germany  because  an  advocate  of 
the  freedom  of  the  people  there.  In  his  argument  he 
suggested  that  if  any  law  was  passed  by  the  Legisla- 
ture which  seemed  to  be  aimed  at  the  Anti-Slavery 
Society,  there  would  be  danger  that  it  might  produce 


I  04  ANTI-SLA  VER  Y  DA  YS. 

mobs.  As  soon  as  he  said  this,  Mr.  Lunt  ordered  him 
to  sit  down,  and  said  that  such  suggestions  were  dis- 
respectful to  the  committee,  and  refused  to  allow 
Doctor  Follen  to  proceed.  The  anti-slavery  men  ap- 
plied for  another  hearing  to  the  Legislature,  and 
Samuel  E.  Sewall,  Dr.  Follen  and  Wm.  Goodell  spoke 
again.  Both  were  again  interrupted  by  Mr.  Lunt. 
Mr.  George  Bond,  an  eminent  merchant,  universally 
respected,  arose  and  protested  against  the  course 
taken  by  Mr.  Lunt,  who  replied  to  him  in  the  same 
insolent  tone  as  to  the  other  gentlemen.  Mr.  Lunt 
has  recently  questioned  the  truth  of  the  description 
of  his  overbearing  conduct  as  given  in  Wilson's  History 
and  in  Samuel  J.  May's  "  Recollections  ;  "  but  the  evi- 
dence of  this  conduct  is  full  and  positive.* 

On  this  occasion  an  incident  occurred  which  is 
mentioned  by  Harriet  Martineau,  and  printed  in  an 
article  in  the  Westminster  Review,  called  the  "  Martyr 
Age  in  America."  She  says  that  while  this  discus- 
sion was  going  on,  tne  door  of  the  room  opened,  and 
Dr.  William  E.  Channing  appeared.  He  was  very 
much  of  an  invalid.  It  was  a  harsh  day,  and  he  did 
not  go  out  much  in  the  winter.  He  stood  a  moment 
in  the  doorway,  wrapped  in  his  cloak.     As  soon  as  he 

*  The  account  of  Mr.  Lunt's  behavior  is  given  in  full  in  Samuel  J. 

I  May's  "  Recollections,"  and  "  Wilson's  Rise  and  Fall  of  the  Slave- 
Power/'  and  I  have  letters  from  Samuel  E.  Sewall  and  Charles  K. 
Whipple,  who  were  both  present,  and  who  assure  me  that  the  account 

.  in  Wilson  is  not  at  all  exaggerated. 


ANTI-SLA  VER  Y  DA  VS.  1 05 

was  seen,  several  gentlemen  stepped  forward  and  of- 
fered him  a  seat,  but  without  taking  it,  he  looked 
around  until  he  saw  where  Mr.  Garrison  was  sitting, 
and  went  and  sat  down  by  his  side.  The  striking 
thing  about  this  action  was,  that  Dr.  Channing  and 
Mr.  Garrison  did  not  agree  about  the  mode  of  putting 
an  end  to  slavery.  They  had  differed  on  this  matter 
and  Mr.  Garrison  had  spoken  with  considerable  sharp- 
ness of  Dr.  Channing  and  his  course.  But  on 
this  occasion  Dr.  Channing  meant  to  have  it  seen 
that  he  was  in  full  sympathy  with  Mr.  Garrison's  pur- 
poses, and  wholly  opposed  to  any  attempt  to  stifle 
free  discussion  in  Massachusetts.  The  next  event 
which  occurred  was  the  Alton  mob  and  the  murder  of 
Lovejoy.  The  city  of  Alton,  opposite  St.  Louis,  was 
at  that  time  a  growing  place,  and  Mr.  Elijah  P.  Love- 
joy  the  editor  of  an  orthodox  newspaper  in  St.  Louis, 
opposed  to  slavery,  but  also  opposed  to  Mr.  Garrison 
and  immediate  emancipation.  But  because  he  was  op- 
posed to  slavery  he  was  driven  from  St.  Louis.  He 
went  to  Alton  and  established  his  newspaper  there. 
His  press  was  destroyed  by  a  mob ;  he  obtained  a 
second  and  third,  and  the  mob  destroyed  them  also. 
He  then  procured  a  fourth  press,  and  had  forty  armed 
men  ready  to  protect  it  as  it  was  brought  from  the 
steamer  into  a  stone  building.  It  was  thought  that  it 
would  be  safe  there,  and  most  of  the  defenders  went 
away.     After  the  night  came  on,  Lovejoy  and  a  few 


!  q6  ANTI-SLA  VER  Y  DA  YS. 

friends  remained  to  protect  the  press  and  the  build- 
ing. A  large  mob  collected  ;  they  fired  at  the  windows 
and  the  defenders  returned  the  fire,  and  one  man  on 
the  outside  was  killed,  The  Mayor  tried  in  vain  to 
repress  the  mob.  Finally  they  put  ladders  to  the 
roof  and  set  fire  to  it.  Mr.  Lovejoy  came  out  with  his 
men  and  looked  for  the  assailants ;  one  man  fired  at  him 
from  behind  a  pile  of  boards  and  killed  him.  When 
this  news  came  to  Boston,  Dr.  Channing  and  others 
applied  for  the  use  of  Faneuil  Hall  to  protest  against 
such  mob  violence.  It  was  refused.  Dr.  Channing 
then  appealed  to  the  citizens  of  Boston,  asking,  "  Has 
Boston  fallen  so  low  that  its  citizens  cannot  be  trusted 
to  come  together  to  defend  the  principles  of  liberty 
for  which  their  fathers  died  ?  Are  our  fellow-citizens 
to  be  murdered  in  defending  their  rights,  and  are  we 
not  to  be  allowed  to  express  our  abhorrence  of  the 
deed  ?  "  In  response  to  this  address  a  public  meeting 
was  called  in  another  place ;  George  Bond  was  the 
chairman,  and  Benjamin  F.  Hallett  the  secretary. 
They  again  applied  for  the  use  of  the  hall,  and  were  so 
strongly  supported  that  Faneuil  Hall  was  granted  them, 
and  the  meeting  was  held  December  8th,  1837.  Mr. 
■^James  T.  Austin,  who  was  the  Attorney-General  of 
the  State,  made  a  violent  speech  in  reply  to  Dr. 
Channing.  He  declared  that  Lovejoy  was  responsible 
for  his  own  death,  and  "  died  as  a  fool  dieth."  He 
compared  the  Alton  mob  to  the  men  who  threw  the 


ANTI-SLAVERY  DAYS  107 

tea  into  Boston  harbor,  the  slaves  to  lions,  tigers  and 
monkeys,  who  had  to  be  chained  in  a  menagerie. 
Then  Wendell  Phillips  arose  ;  he  had  not  expected  to 
speak,  so  he  tells  me.  He  came  in  like  other  specta- 
tors ;  he  went  upon  the  platform  and  addressed  the 
audience.  In  the  midst  of  much  confusion,  he  replied 
with  just  severity  to  Mr.  Austin,  and  said  among 
other  things,  "  When  I  heard  him  place  the  murderers 
of  Lovejoy  by  the  side  of  Hancock,  Adams,  Otis  and 
Quincy,  I  thought  those  pictured  lips  would  have 
broken  into  voice  to  rebuke  this  recreant  American." 
This  was  the  beginning  of  the  career  of  Phillips  as  an 
anti- slavery  orator. 

I  have  in  my  possession  a  pamphlet  written  at  that 
time  by  Mr.  Austin,  and  will  quote  a  single  sentence 
to  show  its  temper  and  tone.  "  '  What  is  to  be  done 
in  regard  to  slavery  ?'  I  answer,  '  Nothing.'  It  is  not 
desirable  that  domestic  slavery  should  cease  in  the 
United  States."  I  have  already  shown  that  the  two 
great  political  parties  were  both  opposed  to  the  anti- 
slavery  movement ;  a  large  part  of  the  church  and  the 
leading  theologians  were  also  opposed  to  it.  I  will 
give  but  one  or  two  examples  of  this. 

^Doctor  Nehemiah  Adams,  of  Boston,  an  eminent 
divine,  a  man  of  intelligence  and  influence,  much 
esteemed  by  his  friends  for  his  personal  and  good 
qualities,  went  to  Port  Royal,  in  South  Carolina  on  a 
visit.      On  his  return  he  was  so  unfortunate  as  to 


!  0g  ANTI-SLA  VER  Y  DA  YS. 

write  a  book  called  "  A  South-side  View  of  Slavery." 
He  gave  a  rose-colored  view  of  that  institution  ;  said 
the  slaves  were  contented  and  happy  ;  said  they  had 
many  privileges,  and  were  treated  very  kindly ;  that 
they  were  not  cruelly  used ;  that  he  heard  them  sing- 
ing in  the  churches,  and  he  therefore  came  to  the  con- 
elusion  that  the  Abolitionists  were  very  much  mis- 
taken, and  that  slavery  was  not  very  bad  after  all. 
The  evil  which  seemed  to  him  the  most  intolerable 
was  that  a  Southern  gentleman  might  come  to  a 
Northern  State  and  bring  a  colored  coachman,  and 
this  coachman  might  be  enticed  away,  and  so  the 
slaveholder  would  be  subject  to  a  good  deal  of  annoy- 
ance. The  place  where  he  wrote  this  book  was  the 
Old  Fort  Plantation  at  Port  Royal.  There  is  a  large 
grove  of  live  oaks  there,  and  in  one  of  them  is  a  seat ; 
there  he  wrote  this  defence  of  slavery.  It  is  a  curious 
fact  that  where  Dr.  Adams  composed  this  book,  there 
on  the  1st  of  January,  1863,  the  officer  in  command 
of  the  United  States  troops  read  to  a  large  assembly 
of  people,  white  and  colored,  the  Proclamation  of 
Emancipation  by  Abraham  Lincoln.  A  programme 
of  proceedings  had  been  arranged,  but  it  was  inter- 
rupted very  suddenly.  No  sooner  had  this  proclama- 
tion been  read,  than  the  colored  people  struck  up  with 
their  whole  heart,  "  My  country  'tis  of  thee,  sweet 
Land  of  Liberty."  Where  they  had  learned  this 
hymn  I  do  not  know,  but  they  had  learned  it,  and 


ANTI-SLA  VER  Y.  1 09 

used  it  on  the  first  occasion  in  their  lives,  when  they 
were  able  to  say  in  truth,  "  My  Country,"  and  to  call 
it  in  reality  a  "  Land  of  Liberty."  In  this  place  also 
Miss  Botume,  a  Northern  lady,  has  during  nearly 
twenty  years,  taught  a  large  school  of  colored  chil- 
dren. She  went  down  to  South  Carolina,  as  many  other 
Northern  teachers  did,  as  soon  as  the  capture  of  the 
Sea  Islands  by  the  battle  of  Hilton  Head,  made  it 
possible  to  teach  the  colored  people.  Miss  Botume, 
Miss  Towne  and  other  teachers  have  seen  a  whole 
generation  of  free  colored  children  grow  up  to  a  use" 
ful  manhood  under  their  instructions. 

Another  Northern  man,  also  a  strenuous  champion 
of  slavery,  was  Dr.  Lord,  President  of  Dartmouth  X 
College.  I  have  two  pamphlets  of  his,  the  first  called, 
"  A  Letter  of  Inquiry  to  Ministers  of  the  Gospel  of 
all  Denominations,"  and  the  other  "  A  Second  Letter, 
by  Nathan  Lord."  This  gentleman,  a  president  of  a 
New  England  college,  took  the  ground  that  slavery  is 
an  institution  of  God  according  to  natural  religion  ; 
that  it  is  not  opposed  to  the  law  of  Love  or  the  Gold- 
en Rule  ;  that  anti-slavery  is  a  heresy,  and  a  false 
doctrine ;  that  slavery  is  a  very  useful  and  wholesome 
institution  ;  that  it  ought  to  be  allowed  to  extend 
itself  over  free  territory ;  that  instead  of  opposing 
slavery,  Christians  should  oppose  anti-slavery;  and 
that  believing  slavery  to  be  a  divine  ordinance,  he 


I  j  o  ANT/SLA  VER  Y  DA  YS. 

would  himself  gladly   own  or  hire  slaves,  if  conve- 
nient.* 

According  to  Dr.  Lord,  the  great  evil  was  not 
slavery  but  freedom.  It  was  not  Pharaoh,  but  Moses 
who  was  to  be  blamed  ;  and,  when  the  prophet  Isaiah 
said  that  we  must  "  break  every  yoke,  and  let  the  op- 
pressed go  free,,;  Dr.  Lord  would  have  called  his  sen- 
timent "  a  destructive  fallacy,"  and  would  have  said 
that  the  prophet  showed  himself  "  a  romantic  and  ex- 
citable person." 

Not  long  after  these  pamphlets  by  Dr.  Lord,  an- 
other Christian  minister  in  the  Free  States  came  to 
the  defence  of  slavery ;  and  this  time  it  was  a  bishop 
9t  of  the  Episcopal  Church.  Bishop  Hopkins  of  Ver- 
mont, in  1857  wrote  a  book  called  "The  American 
Citizen."  It  was  a  curious  farrago,  containing  a  little 
of  everything.  He  gave  a  translation  of  a  part  of 
Cicero  ;  he  told  his  readers  how  to  choose  a  wife,  and 
opposed  the  use  of  salaratus  in  bread.  The  bishop, 
giving  his  views  on  female  education,  was  of  the  opin- 
ion that  while  it  was  proper  for  a  young  lady  to  paint 
in  water-colors,  she  must  by  no  means  be  allowed  to 
paint  in  oils.  He  then  proceeded  to  treat  of  slavery, 
maintaining  that  the  slaves  were  the  happiest  class  of 


*  Compare  these  declarations  with  those  of  Henry  Clay,  who, 
though  a  slaveholder,  declared  slavery  an  evil  and  a  wrong,  and  said 
that  nothing  on  earth  would  induce  him  to  consent  to  its  going  to  any 
place  where  it  did  not  exist. 


ANTI-SLA  VER Y  DAYS.  in 

laborers  in  the  world.  Like  Dr.  Lord,  he  defended 
the  slave-trade ;  and,  finally,  having  proved  to  his 
own  satisfaction  that  slavery  was  right  in  itself,  sanc- 
tioned by  Christianity,  and  even  commanded  by  God, 
and  was  every  way  a  blessed  institution,  he  very 
curiously  turned  round  and  began  to  ask  how  it  could 
be  abolished !  He  proceeded  to  show  that  it  might 
easily  be  brought  to  an  end  by  sending  the  whole 
colored  race  back  to  Africa.  If  the  people  of  the 
United  States  would  pay  sixty  millions  annually  for 
twenty-five  years,  we  could  thus  send  away  40,000  a 
year.  He  did  not  say  what  these  emigrants  were  to 
do  when  they  reached  Africa,  or  how  they  could  sup- 
port themselves  there.  This  was  regarded  as  wisdom 
and  conservatism  in  those  days.  And  this  was  only 
six  years  before  the  Proclamation  of  Emancipation. 
Was  it  any  wonder  when  such  books  as  these  were 
published  by  the  most  eminent  men  in  the  Northern 
churches,  that  the  abolitionists  should  say  in  their 
haste  that  the  American  church  was  "  The  Bulwark 
of  Slavery,"  "The  Refuge  of  Oppression,"  and  "A 
Brotherhood  of  Thieves  ? "  And  yet  the  large  ma- 
jority of  men  in  the  Northern  church  were  opposed 
to  slavery,  and  furnished  the  recruits  for  abolition. 
But  Whittier  described  well  these  blind  leaders  of 
the  blind,  as  those  who 

u tortured  the  pages  of  the  blessed  bible, 

To  sanction  crime  and  robbery  and  blood, 


!  j  2  ANTI-SLA  VER  Y  DA  YS 

And,  in  oppression's  hateful  service,  libel 
Both  man  and  God." 

Those  people  in  the  North  who  opposed  the  anti- 
slavery  movement  might  thus  be  classed  :  First,  there 
were  the  political  opponents  who  feared  that  this 
movement  would  in j  ure  the  party  machine.  The  word 
"  Dough-faces  "  was  invented  to  describe  those  among 
them  who  were  ready  to  sacrifice  everything  to  the 
South  to  help  their  party.  Mr.  Calhoun  was  not  a 
Dough-face ;  he  maintained  that  slavery  was  right 
and  necessary.  Southern  politicians  were  manly  and 
outspoken,  and  did  not  conceal  their  sentiments.  But 
some  Northern  politicians  were  supple  and  cunning. 
They  were  aiming  at  a  national  office,  seeking  per- 
haps the  presidency,  and  they  saw  very  plainly  that 
the  South  was  so  sensitive  on  the  subject  of  slavery, 
and  so  united,  that  no  Northern  man  would  obtain  a 
national  office  unless  he  went  all  lengths  in  showing 
his  willingness  to  support  the  claims  of  the  slave-power. 
Their  object  was  to  satisfy  the  South  and  deceive  the 
North.  They  exhausted  all  devices  to  give  a  plausible 
appearance  to  their  concessions  to  the  slave-power. 
#  The  most  eminent  of  these  leaders  were  Mr.  Bu- 
chanan and  Mr.  Cass.  Perhaps  Buchanan  went 
further  than  Cass,  for  the  Democrats  in  Mr.  Cass's 
state  of  Michigan  were  less  tractable  than  those  of 
Pennsylvania.  At  the  time  Mr.  Buchanan  was  nomi- 
nated for  the  presidency  I  cut  from  a  Richmond  paper 


A  NTI-SLA  VER  Y  DAYS.  r  T  3 

an  article  which  said  that  Mr.  Buchanan,  from  the  very 
first,  never  failed  to  vote  for  every  measure  the  South 
had  demanded,  and  gave  a  list  of  these  votes.* 

He  was  rewarded  for  his  complete  subserviency  to 
the  slave-power  by  being  chosen  President  in  1856. 
Whether  he  found  himself  happy  in  the  Presidential 
chair  or  not,  I  do  not  undertake  to  say.  None  of  his 
Pro-Slavery  votes  disturbed  the  confidence  of  the  Penn- 
sylvania Democrats.     The  voters  of  Pennsylvania,  of 

*  This  is  what  the  Richmond  Inquirer  said  of  Mr.  Buchanan  when  a 
candidate  for  the  Presidency  in  1856  : 

1.  In  1836,  Mr.  Buchanan  supported  a  bill  to  prohibit  the  circula- 
tion of  Abolition  Papers  through  the  mail. 

2.  In  the  same  year  he  proposed  and  voted  for  the  admission  of 
Arkansas . 

3.  In  1836-7  he  denounced  and  voted  to  reject  petitions  for  the  Abo- 
lition of  Slavery  in  the  District  of  Columbia. 

4.  In  1837  he  voted  for  Mr.  Calhoun's  famous  resolutions,  defining 
the  rights  of  the  States  and  the  limits  of  Federal  authority,  and  affirm- 
ing it  to  be  the  duty  of  the  Government  to  protect  and  uphold  the 
institutions  of  the  South. 

5.  In  1838,  1839  and  1840,  he  invariably  voted  with  Southern  Sena- 
tors against  the  consideration  of  anti-slavery  petitions. 

6.  In  1844-5,  ne  advocated  and  voted  for  the  Annexation  of  Texas. 

7.  In  1847,  he  sustained  the  Clayton  Compromise. 

8.  In  1850,  he  proposed  and  urged  the  extension  of  the  Missouri 
Compromise  to  the  Pacific  Ocean. 

9.  But  he  promptly  acquiesced  in  the  Compromise  of  1850,  and  em- 
ployed all  his  influence  in  favor  of  the  faithful  execution  of  the  Fugi- 
tive Slave  law. 

10.  In  1854  he  remonstrated  against  an  enactment  of  the  Pennsylva- 
nia Legislature  for  obstructing  the  arrest  and  return  of  fugitive  slaves. 

11.  In  1844  he  negotiated  for  the  acquisition  of  Cuba. 

12.  In  1856  he  approves  the  repeal  of  the  Missouri  restriction,  and 
supports  the  principles  of  the  Kansas-Nebraska  Act. 

13.  He  never  gave  a  vote  against  the  interest  of  slavery  and  never 
uttered  a  word  which  could  pain  the  most  sensitive  Southern  heart. 


ii4 


ANTI-SLA  VER  Y  DA  VS. 


both  parties,  have  always  gladly  submitted  to  the 
government  of  the  politicians.  There  was  a  story 
among  the  anti-slavery  speakers,  about  one  of  their 
number  who  once  went  as  a  missionary  into  Bucks 
county,  Va.,  where  there  were  many  German  Demo- 
crats. He  tried  to  convince  his  audience  that  Democ- 
racy ought  to  ally  itself  to  anti-slavery.  "Why, 
what  do  you  call  a  Democrat  ?  "  said  the  orator.  "  Is 
he  not  one  who  believes  in  equal  rights  for  all  ?  Is 
he  not  one  who  believes  in  the  freedom  of  all  man- 
kind?" Then  an  old  German  cried  out,  "That's  not 
what  I  calls  a  Democrat ;  I  calls  a  Democrat  a  man 
what  votes  a  Democratic  ticket." 

There  were  others  who  refused  to  join  the  anti- 
slavery  ranks,  because  they  feared  that  this  movement 
would  imperil  the  Union.  To  this  class  belonged 
^fMr.  Webster,  Mr.  Everett,  and  Mr.  Choate.  Then 
there  were  the  ecclesiastical  opponents,  who  dreaded 
lest  it  should  divide  the  churches.  Then  came  the 
commercial  opponents,  who  were  afraid  that  it  would 
injure  trade.  To  these  were  added  another  class  who 
said,  M  We  have  made  a  contract  with  the  South,  and 
we  ought  to  keep  that  contract."  The  result  of  it 
was  that  the  political  opposition  to  slavery  grew 
weaker  down  to  the  time  of  the  formation  of  the 
Republican  party.  In  the  early  days  both  the  North 
and  South  agreed  that  slavery  must  be  abolished,  and 
that  sooner  or  later  it  would  disappear.     The  Dane 


ANTI-SI.  A  VER  Y  DAYS.  I  r  5 

proviso,  to  exclude  it  from  the  Northern  territory, 
was  supported,  as  we  have  seen,  by  the  Southerners 
as  well  as  by  the  Northerners  in  Congress.  But 
when  cotton-growing  began  to  grow  profitable,  the 
belief  in  the  abolition  of  slavery  died  out  at  the  South. 
The  next  view  was  that  it  was  to  divide  with  freedom 
the  national  territory.  This  opinion  asserted  itself 
and  triumphed  when  the  Missouri  compromise  was 
passed.  Then  came  the  determination  to  extend  the 
domain  of  slavery  by  the  annexation  of  Texas.  Next 
it  was  asserted  that  slavery  was  to  be  prohibited  no- 
where, but  to  be  maintained  everywhere  ;  that  where- 
ever  slaveholders  went  with  their  slaves,  they  were  to 
be  protected  ;  and  finally  that  slavery  was  to  command, 
and  liberty  to  obey.  This  doctrine  was  enforced  in 
Kansas  so  far  a  s  they  were  able  by  President  Pierce 
and  President  Buchaman,  who  made  themselves  the 
obedient  instruments  of  the  slave-power. 

Meantime  the  anti-slavery  movement,  an  ever- 
advancing  stream,  "  an  exulting  and  abounding  river  " 
of  thought  and  action  grew  deeper,  and  spread  more 
widely.  Among  members  of  Congress  it  had  such 
advocates  as  those  of  whom  I  have  already  spoken, 
Sumner,  Chase,  John  P.  Hale,  Amos  Tuck,  Robert 
Rantoul,  Jr.,  Henry  Wilson,  John  G.  Calfrey,  Joshua 
Giddings,  Charles  Allen  of  Worcester,  Stephen  C.  Phil- 
lips of  Salem,  Slade  of  Vermont,  Julian  of  Indiana. 
Among  these,  Robert  Rantoul  of  Newburyport,  Mass., 


j  i  6  •  A  NTI-SLA  VER  Y  DA  YS. 

was  one  of  the  greatest  promise  ;  but  he  was  too  early 
lost  to  his  State,  and  to  the  nation.  A  Democrat  from 
conviction  and  party  affiliation,  he  yet,  like  John  P. 
Hale  of  New  Hampshire  and  Morris  of  Ohio,  refused 
to  be  led  by  his  party  to  the  support  or  defence  of 
slavery.  His  speeches  show  a  remarkable  power  of 
keen  perception,  prompt  retort,  and  ready  extempo- 
raneous argument.  In  the  latter  respect  I  have 
scarcely  seen  his  equal.  His  face  was  of  a  Southern 
type,  and  his  keen  eye  showed  the  fire  within. 

To  what  has  already  been  said  of  John  Quincy 
Adams,  I  will  add  the  following  anecdote,  received 
from  Capt.  Boutelle,  of  the  Coast  Survey.  He  tells 
me  that  when  he  was  a  very  young  man,  he  went  to 
Washington  to  ask  for  a  position  on  the  Coast  Survey. 
He  had  one  or  two  letters  to  John  Quincy  Adams, 
and  the  old  gentleman  took  quite  an  interest  in  this 
youth.  "  I  had  heard  him  called  cold,"  says  he,  "  but 
if  he  had  been  my  father  he  could  not  have  done 
more  for  me.  He  went  to  the  Secretary  of  the  Navy, 
and  waited  in  the  ante-chamber  an  hour,  till  he  had 
the  opportunity  of  seeing  the  Secretary  and  securing 
for  me  the  position.  The  same  week,  or  about  that 
time,  the  famous  '  Latimer  petition'  was  brought  into 
Congress.  Latimer  was  a  fugitive  slave  who  had 
been  arrested  and  ransomed.  This  petition  was  in 
favor  of  the  right  of  petition  in  regard  to  slavery. 
It    was    signed  by  300,000  persons,  and    made   an 


ANTI-SLA  VER  Y  DAYS.  ny 

enormous  roll.  It  was  placed  upon  Mr.  Adams' 
deck,  in  front  of  him  ;  and  as  he  was  rather  a  short 
person,  only  his  head  appeared  above  the  roll 
He  said,  '  I  suppose,  Mr.  Speaker,  it  is  hardly  neces- 
sary to  send  this  petition  to  the  desk.  It  would  take 
two  strong  men  to  carry  it  ;  the  pag^s  cannot  take  it. 
It  is  a  petition  headed  by  George  Latimer.'  Then  a 
Virginian  sprang  up  and  said, '  Does  Mr.  Adams  know 
who  this  George  Latimer  is,  who  heads  that  petition  ? ' 
Mr.  Adams,  who  had  probably  been  expecting  some 
such  interruption,  cried  out,  in  his  chrill  voice,  which 
rang  through  the  hall,  '  Yes  I  know  very  well  who  he 
is.  I  have  been  credibly  informed,  and  I  certainly 
believe  the  fact,  that  he  is  a  descendant  of  one  of  the 
first  families  of  Virginia."  Latimer  was  said  to  be  the 
son  of  his  owner. 

Northern  men  who  joined  the  anti-slavery  societies 
were  educated  by  reading  the  Liberator,  the  New 
York  Tribune,  the  New  York  Independent,  and 
National  Era,  all  of  which  papers  stood  up  manfully 
for  the  righto  of  the  North,  and  the  cause  of  freedom. 
These  were  sturdy  men,  and  their  character  cannot  be 
better  illustrated  than  by  an  anecdote  I  once  heard 
from  Wendell  Phillips  in  regard  to  a  lecture  which  he 
was  to  deliver  in  some  town  in  New  Hampshire. 
When  he  arrived  at  the  town,  and  went  to  the  hall,  he 
was  met  outside  by  the  President,  who  said  to  him, 
"  Mr.  Phillips,  what  are  you  going  to  lecture  about 


1 1 8  ANTI-SLA  VER  V  DA  VS. 

this  evening?"  Phillips  replied,  "Street  Life  in 
Europe."  "  You  are  not  going  to  lecture  on  Abolition, 
then  ? "  He  answered,  "  No  sir ;  Iwas  not  asked  to 
do  so."  "  There  seems  to  be  some  mistake,  Mr. 
Phillips,"  resumed  the  President.  "  No  mistake  on 
my  part,"  responded  the  lecturer ;  "  I  was  asked  to 
come  and  give  a  lecture  here  to-night,  and  I  have 
come."  "  Please  to  walk  into  the  hall,"  said  the  Pres- 
ident of  the  Lyceum.  He  went  on  the  platform  and 
asked,  "Is  the  Secretary  of  the  Lyceum  in  the 
house?"  Some  one  called  out  "Yes"  from  the 
middle  of  the  hall.  "  I  told  you,  Mr.  Secretary,  when 
you  wrote  to  Mr.  Phillips,  to  ask  him  to  lecture  to- 
night on  abolition.  Did  you  do  so,  or  did  you  not?  " 
"  I  did  not"  was  the  reply.  **  Why  did  you  not  do  it, 
when  the  Committee  told  you  to  do  so  ?  "  "  Because," 
returned  the  other,  "  I  do  not  mean  to  have  abolition 
rammed  down  my  throat."  To  which  the  President 
promptly  responded,  "  I  will  give  you  to  understand, 
Mr.  Secretary,  that  we  do  not  mean  to  have  you 
rammed  down  our  throats."  A  vote  was  taken,  and  i'; 
was  decided  by  a  considerable  majority  thai:  Mr.  Phil- 
lips should  lecture  on  abolition,  and  he  spoke  on  that 
familiar  topic  during  two  hours. 

Among  the  citizens  of  Boston  who  took  part  in  this 
anti-slavery  movement  were  many  who  inherited 
historic  names,  like  Samuel  E.  Sewall,  who  was  with 
Garrison  at  the  beginning,  and  was  faithful  to  the  end. 


ANTI-SLA  VER  Y  DAYS.  11-9 

He  is  one  of  the  few  who  remain  from  that  early  day' 
of  small  things.  Oliver  Johnson  was  also  one  of  the 
earliest,  and  still  remains  vigorous  and  active  in  New 
York.  Mr.  Robert  Wallcutt  was  also  one  of  the 
earliest  and  most  faithful,  and  is  still  living.  Samuel 
May,  of  Leicester,  was  one  who  never  wavered  in  his 
loyalty  to  the  movement.  Theodore  D.  Weld,  who 
by  his  eloquence  is  said  to  have  converted  most  of 
the  theological  students  in  Lane  Seminary,  Cincinnati, 
to  anti-slavery,  and  also  to  have  made  a  convert  of 
James  G.  Birney,  then  a  slaveholder,  and  to  have  in- 
duced him  to  emancipate  his  slaves,  is  also  still 
vigorous  and  active.  So  is  Henry  Ward  Beecher, 
whose  services  in  the  cause  were  so  very  great. 

The  sons  of  Dr.  Bowditch,  the  great  mathematician, 
William  I.  Bowditch  and  Henry  I.  Bowditch,  both 
active  champions  of  the  slave,  are  living  still.  So  are 
Parker  Pillsbury,  and  the  twaJELoats,  with  Charles  L. 
Remond  and  Mr.  Buffum.  But  Edmund  Quincy  and 
Horace  Mann  are  gone  ;  and  David  Lee  Child  and 
Lydia  Maria  Child,  Ellis  Gray  Loring  and  Louisa 
Loring,  Dr.  Follen  and  Eliza  Follen,  Wm.  Goodell, 
Francis  Jackson,  Richard  Hildreth,  Samuel  G.  Howe 
and  William  Jay.  One  man  whose  eloquence  then 
thrilled  us  is  also  living,  I  mean  Frederick  Douglass, 
a  wonderful  proof  of  the  power  which  is  born  out  of 
terrible  experience.  Beside  this,  Douglass  has  a  great 
gift  of  language,  and  a  fine  sense  of  art,  which  places 


1 2  o  ANTI-SLA  VER  Y  DA  VS. 

him  among  the  first  orators  of  our  time.  There  were 
great  numbers  of  noble  men  and  women  whose  names 
were  scarcely  heard  of,  but  who  were  as  devoted  as 
those  I  have  mentioned.  They  had  no  care  for  fame 
or  notoriety,  and  it  was  only  by  accident  if  they 
became  distinguished.  Such  were  the  two  Misses 
Grimke,  who  left  South  Carolina  because  they  could 
no  longer  endure  the  atmosphere  of  slavery.  Brought 
up  in  the  Episcopal  Church,  they  left  it  when  they 
found  it  wedded  to  slavery,  and  joined  the  Friends 
and  became  able  advocates  of  human  rights.  Such 
was  Mattie  Griffiths  and  her  sister,  who  left 
Kentucky  for  the  same  reason,  emancipating  their 
slaves  and  leaving  themselves  without  a  support. 

Many  of  these  admirable  men  and  women  have  been 
immortalized  in  the  poems  of  Whittier,  which  are  like 
a  gallery  of  portraits — a  portrait-gallery  devoted  to 
the  heroes,  saints  and  martyrs  of  our  time.  There 
you  find  the  picture  of  Garrison,— 

11  Champion  of  those  who  groan  beneath 
Oppression's  iron  hand." 

By  his  side  is  that  of  Governor  Ritner,  of  Pennsyl- 
vania, the  only  Northern  Governor  who,  when  the 
slave-power  demanded  that  the  Northern  States  should 
put  down  abolition,  answered  that  he  "  would  never 
submit  to  give  up  the  free  discussion  of  any  subject." 


ANTI-SLA  VEP  Y  D/YS.  121 

"  Thank  God  for  the  token— one  lip  is  still  free, 
One  spirit  untrammelled,  unbending  one  knee  ; 
Thank  God  that  one  arm  from  the  shackle  has  broken; 
Thank  God  that  one  man  as  a  freeman  has  spoken." 

And  near  by  is  the  portrait  of  Captain  Jonathan 
Walker,  of  Massachusetts,  who  was  fined,  imprisoned 
and  branded  on  the  hand  for  helping  slaves  to  escape 
from  Florida. 

"  Welcome  home  again,  brave  seaman,  with  thy  thoughtful  brow  and 

[gray. 
And  the  old  heroic  spirit  of  an  earlier,  better  day ; 
With  that  front  of  calm  endurance,  on  whose  steady  nerve  in  vain, 
Pressed  the  iron  of  the  prison,  smote  the  fiery  shafts  of  pain." 

And  there  is  the  portrait  of  Charles  Follen,  so 
sweet  and  so  brave,  banished  from  Europe  for  loving 
freedom  there,  yet  keeping  his  love  of  freedom  here. 
Not  like  many  others,  fleeing  from  tyranny  abroad  to 
become  the  allies  of  tyrants  in  their  new  home  ;  not 
like  too  many  of  the  European  patriots,  who  merely 
hated  despotism  when  they  themselves  suffered  from 
it.  Such  a  mean-souled  patriot  was  John  Mitchell, 
who  declared  that  he  would  like  a  plantation  in 
Alabama  "stocked  with  fat  negroes."  But  Follen 
was  not  such  a  man.  He  allied  himself  to  the  anti- 
slavery  cause  when  it  was  most  unpopular,  and  sacri- 
ficed his  position  in  that  cause. 

"  Friend  of  my  soul  !  as  with  moist  eye 
I  look  up  from  this  page  of  thine — 
Is  it  a  dream  that  thou  art  nigh  ? 
Thy  mild  face  gazing  into  mine  ? 


!  2  2  ANTI-SLA  VER  Y  DA  YS. 

"The  calm  brow  through  the  parted  hair, 
The  gentle  lips  which  knew  no  guile, 
Softening  the  blue  eyes'  thoughtful  care 
With  the  bland  beauty  of  their  smile." 

And  there,  in  Whittier's  gallery,  is  the  portrait  of 
Leggett,  the  New  York  journalist,  the  Democrat  who 
believed  in  real  democracy  and  contended  for  entire 
freedom  of  thought  and  speech.  And  there  also,  in 
this  impartial  collection,  is  Silas  Wright,  one  of  the 
great  Leaders  of  the  Democratic  party,  who  saw  the 
perils  from  the  slave-power  and  was  man  enough  to 
resist  it. 

"  Man  of  the  millions  !  thou  art  lost  too  soon." 

And  then  comes  Channing,  a  nobler  form — hero 
and  saint  in  one. 

"  In  vain  shall  Rome  her  portals  bar, 
And  shut  from  him  her  saintly  prize, 
Whom  in  the  world's  great  calendar, 
All  men  shall  canonize." 

Then  comes  the  picture  of  the  chivalric  Torrey, 
born  near  Plymouth  Rock,  and  full  of  the  Pilgrim 
soul,  Going  to  a  convention  at  Annapolis,  as  a 
reporter  for  a  Washington  paper,  and  being  known  as 
an  abolitionist,  he  was  thrust  into  a  prison-cell,  and 
afterward,  when  delivered,  he  went  to  Virginia  to  aid 
a  family  to  escape,  and  was  arrested  and  sentenced  to 
six  months  in  the  penitentiary,  where  he  died  of 
hardship  and  privation..     His  body  was  brought  to 


ANTI-SLA  VER  Y  DA  VS.  1 2  3 

Boston,  and  Park  Street  Church,  where  his  brother 
worshipped,  was  refused  for  the  funeral  service.  He 
rests  in  Mount  Auburn,  and  his  soul  is  enshrined  by 
Whittier. 

Another  picture  is  of  Daniel  Neall,  a  friend  of  the 
slave. 

"  Formed  on  the  good  old  plan, 

A  true,  and  brave,  and  downright  honest  man  ; 
Who  tranquilly  in  life's  great  task-field  wrought.'' 

And  there  is  the  portrait  of  Robert  Rantoul. 

"  He  who  had  sat  at  Sidney's  feet, 
And  walked  with  Pym  and  Vane  apart, 
And  through  the  centuries  felt  the  beat 
Of  Freedom's  march  in  Cromwell's  heart ; 

'  No  wild  enthusiast  of  the  right, 
Self-poised  and  clear,  he  showed  alway 
The  coolness  of  this  Northern  night, 
The  ripe  repose  of  autumn's  day." 

And  there  is  the  best  portrait  ever  taken  of  Dr. 
Howe — the  hero,  the  knight,  the  Bayard  of  our  time 
— he  who  fought  by  the  side  of  Byron  in  Greece  ;  he 
who  fought  with  the  Poles  against  Russia  ;  he  who 
stood  by  the  side  of  the  patriots  behind  the  barricades 
of  Paris  in  1830  ;  he  who  helped  old  John  Brown,  of 
Osawatomie,  in  1859,  and  who  was  the  friend  of  the 
blind,  the  deaf  and  dumb,  the  sufferers  and  the  weak. 

"  Wouldst  know  him  now  ?     Behold  him ! 
The  Cadmus  of  the  blind — 
Giving  the  dumb  lips  language, 
The  idiot  clay  a  mind. 


124  ANTI-SLA  VER  Y  DA  YS. 

"  Walking  his  round  of  duty 
Serenely,  day  by  day ; 
With  the  strong  man's  hand  of  labor 
And  childhood's  heart  of  play. 

"  Wherever  outraged  Nature 
Asks  word  or  action  brave ; 
Wherever  struggles  labor, 
Wherever  groans  a  slave. 

"  Wherever  rise  the  peoples, 
Wherever  sinks  a  throne, 
The  throbbing  heart  of  Freedom  finds 
An  answer  in  his  own." 

And  here  is  the  picture  of  Charles  Sumner — in 
which  he  is  described  as  combining  the  scathing  power 
of  Brougham,  with  Canning's  grace — described  as 
having  been  nourished  by  all  the  Muses,  springing 
from  their  arms  an  athlete  to  smite  the  Python  of 
our  time  ;  described  as  placing  on  the  shrine  of  free- 
dom the  gifts  of  Cumae  and  of  Delphi ;  and  as  stand- 
ing strong  as  truth,  tranquil-fronted,  and  above  all  the 
tumult  of  earth. 

Next,  Whittier  gives  us  the  sight  of  Barbour, 
killed  in  Kansas  by  the  border  ruffians — dying  in  de- 
fence of  freedom. 

11  Bear  him,  comrades,  to  his  grave, 
Never  over  one  more  brave, 
Shall  the  prairie  grasses  wave. 

"  Bear  him  up  the  frozen  hill, 
O'er  the  land  he  came  to  till, 
And  his  poor  hut  roofed  with  sod. 


ANTI-SLA  VER  Y  DA  VS.  125 

Patience  friends!  the  human  heart 
Everywhere  shall  take  our  part; 
Everywhere  for  us  shall  pray 

"  On  our  side  are  Nature's  laws, 
And  God's  life  is  in  the  cause 
That  we  suffer  for  to-day. 

M  Frozen  earth  to  frozen  breast, 
Lay  our  slain  one  down  to  rest, 

Lay  him  down  in  hope  and  faith." 

Then  we  see  the  fair  face  and  clear  eye  of  Starr 
King. 

"  The  great  work  laid  upon  his  twoscore  years, 
Is  done  and  well  done ;  if  we  drop  our  tears, 
Who  loved  him  as  few  men  were  ever  loved, 
We  mourn  no  blighted  hope,  or  broken  plan 
With  him  whose  life  stands  rounded  and  approved 
In  the  full  growth  and  stature  of  a  man. 
O  East  and  West !  O  morn  and  sunset !  twain 
No  more  forever !     Has  he  lived  in  vain, 
Who,  Priest  of  Freedom,  made  you  one,  and  told 
Your  bridal  service  from  his  lips  of  gold." 

When  we  ask  what  was  the  power,  what  the  mo- 
tive, which  united  these  anti-slavery  men,  and  enabled 
them  to  resist  and  finally  conquer  the  immense  array 
of  force  opposed  to  them,  we  must  say  first  that  it 
was  because  they  had  on  their  side  justice  and  truth, 
"and  who  knows  not,"  said  Milton,  "that  truth  is 
strong — next  the  Almighty." 

But  to  this  motive  was  joined  another.  Man's 
courage  and  energy  is  often  roused  by  the  very  diffi- 
culty and  danger  of  the  task  before  him.  Why  do 
men  climb  the  Matterhorn  ;  go  out  to  India  to  shoot 


126  ANTI-SLAVERY  DAYS. 

tigers  ;  go  to  the  North  Pole  to  be  frozen  in  those 
awful  deserts  of  cold  ;  find  their  way  to  the  sources 
of  the  Nile,  or  of  the  Congo  ?  Partly,  I  think,  be- 
cause of  the  very  danger  and  difficulty  of  these  enter- 
prises. God  has  put  in  the  human  brain  the  organ 
of  combat;  not  that  man  shall  fight  bitter  battles 
with  his  brother-man,  but  that  he  may  fight  against 
evils,  falsehoods,  wrongs  and  cruelties.  Every  re- 
former must  have  a  large  organ  of  combativeness, 
and  an  equally  large  organ  of  destructiveness.  Then, 
besides  all  other  motives,  he  is  inspired  by  the  joy  of 
the  combat — the  dread  delight  of  battle.  A  desire  to 
battle  with  wrongs  and  destroy  them  is  not  inconsis- 
tent with  good  will  towards  the  wrong-doer.  Such 
was  the  temper  of  the  abolitionists — their  words  were 
sharp,  and  pointed,  and  like  the  Sword  of  the  Spirit 
pierced  through  to  the  dividing  asunder  of  all  sophis- 
tries and  falsehoods.  But  their  hearts  were  kind  and 
their  feelings  tender,  and  those  who  knew  them  best 
will  testify  that  they  were,  after  all,  a  good-natured 
and  affectionate  people. 


ANTI-SLA  VER  Y  DA  YS. 


27 


CHAPTER  V. 

ANTI-SLAVERY     IN    POLITICS. 

u  Count  me  o'er  earths  chosen  heroes.    They  were  men  who  stood 
alone, 
While  the  crowd  they  agonized  for  hurled  the  contumelious  stone  ; 
Stood  serene,  and  down  the  future  saw  the  golden  beam  incline 
To  the  side  of  perfect  justice,  mastered  by  their  faith  divine," 

Lowell. 

There  have  been  three  parties  in  the  United 
States  which  had  for  their  main  object  to  resist  the 
aggressions  of  the  slave-power  by  political  action. 
First  came  the  "  Liberty  Party"  formed  in  1840  by 
a  convention  at  Albany,  presided  over  by  Alvin 
Smith,  an  early  abolitionist,  and  a  man  of  great 
ability.  It  nominated  James  G,  Birney  for  President, 
and  at  the  election  which  made  Gen.  Harrison,  Presi- 
dent, it  cast  only  7000  votes  out  of  2,000,000.  In  1841, 
Salmon  P.  Chase  joined  its  ranks.  In  1843  it  held  a 
convention  at  Buffalo,  which  Stephen  S  Foster  said, 
"  was  one  of  the  most  earnest,  patriotic,  and  intelligent 
bodies  which  ever  met  on  this  continent."  In  1844, 
it  cast  60,000  votes,  held  the  balance  in  New  York, 
and  defeated  Henry  Clay,  and  so  caused  the  election 
of  Polk  and  the  annexation  of  Texas — which  was  proba 
bly  a  great  mistake. 

The  next  political  anti-slavery  party  was  the  "  Free- 


1 23  ANTI-SLA  VER  Y  DA  VS. 

Soil"  party — formed  in  1848,  to  oppose  the  extension 
of  slavery  into  new  territories.  It  met  at  Buffalo, 
August  9,  and  nominated  Mr.  Van  Buren  for  the 
Presidency  and  threw  270,000  votes,  most  of  which 
being  taken  from  the  Democratic  party,  caused  Gen. 
Cass  to  lose  the  State  of  New  York,  and  gave  the 
election  to  Gen.  Taylor.  The  third  political  party  op- 
posed to  Slavery  was  the  "  Republican  "  party,  which 
Mr.  Wilson  says  was  formed  and  christened  in  Michi- 
gan by  a  fusion  of  Free-Soilers  and  Whigs  opposed 
to  the  Kansas-Nebraska  bill.  This  bill  passed  in 
May  1854,  repealed  the  Missouri  Compromise,  and 
admitted  slavery  into  all  the  territories  of  the  United 
States. 

July  6th,  1854,  a  convention  in  Michigan  of  Free- 
Soilers  and  Whigs  formed  a  new  union  and  called  it 
the  Republican  party.  This  was  followed  by  a  gen- 
eral uprising  of  the  people  of  the  North.  It  nomi- 
nated Gen.  Fremont  for  the  Presidency.  He  was 
defeated  in  1856,  by  James  Buchanan.  There  were 
three  candidates,  Buchanan,  (Democrat)  Fillmore, 
(American)  and  Fremont  (Republican).  Fremont 
received  1,340,000  votes.  In  the  next  election,  in 
i860,  the  Republican  party  elected  Lincoln  as  Presi- 
dent by  a  popular  vote  of  1,866,000  against  1,575,000 
for  Douglas,  847,000  for  Breckenridge,  and  590,000 
for  the  Bell  and  Everett  ticket.  In  20  years  it  rose 
ora   7,000  votes  to  nearly  2,000,000.     While  these 


ANTI-SLA VER Y  DAYS.  l2g 

political  anti-slavery  movements  were  going  on,  the  old 
abolitionists  under  the  lead  of  Garrison,  Phillips  antf 
others  had  decided  to  oppose  all  voting  and  all  politi- 
cal efforts  under  the  Constitution.  They  adopted  as 
their  motto,  "  No  Union  with  Slaveholders."  Their 
hope  for  abolishing  slavery  was  in  inducing  the  North 
to  dissolve  the  Union.  Edmund  Quincy  said  the 
Union  was  "  a  confederacy  with  crime "  that  "  the 
experiment  of  a  great  nation  with  popular  institutions 
had  signally  failed  ; "  that  the  Republic  was  "  not  a 
model,  but  a  warning  to  the  nations  ;  "  that  the  whole 
people  must  be  "  either  slaveholders  or  slaves  ;  "  that 
the  only  escape  for  "  the  slave  from  his  bondage  was 
over  the  ruins  of  the  American  Church  and  the 
American  State  ;  "  and  that  it  was  the  unalterable 
purpose  of  the  Garrisonians  to  labor  for  the  dissolu- 
tion of  the  Union."  Wendell  Phillips  said  on  one 
occasion,  "  Thank  God,  I  am  not  a  citizen  of  the 
United  States."  As  late  as  1861,  he  declared  the 
Union  a  failure,  and  argued  for  the  Dissolution  of  the 
Union  as  "  the  best  possible  method  of  abolishing 
slavery."* 

*Speech  in  Music  Hall,  Boston,  Jan.  20th,  1861. 
"  I  have  recently  received  a  note  from  Wendell  Phillips,  in  which 
he  says — "  I  have  heard  that  you  said  in  your  lectures  something  of 
this  kind,  that  the  Garrisonians  abstained  from  voting  as  one  means 
of  abolishing,  or  their  means  of  abolishing  slavery — which  does  not 
correctly  represent  us.  As  I  am  very  proud  of  the  stand  we  took, 
and  the  reason  we  gave  for  it,  allow  me  to  explain.  We  abstained 
from  voting  because  we  thought  it  wrong  to  do  an  act  which  implied 


i3° 


ANH-SLA  VER  Y  DA  YS. 


1 


In  thus  contending  for  the  abolition  of  slavery  by 
disunion,  and  arguing  that  this  was  the  true  anti- 
slavery  course,  we  now  see  that  Garrison,  Phillips  and 
their  friends  were  mistaken.  Slavery  was  abolished 
not  by  disunion,  but  by  the  power  which  opposed 
disunion.  If  the  North  had  agreed  to  disunion  and 
had  followed  the  advice  of  Phillips  in  January  1861, 
to  "  build  a  bridge  of  gold  to  take  the  Slave  States 
out  of  the  Union,"  slavery  would  probably  be  still  ex- 
isting in  all  the  Southern  States.  At  all  events,  it 
was  not  abolished  by  those  who  wished  for  disunion, 
but  by  those  who  were  determined  at  all  hazards  and 
by  every  sacrifice  to  maintain  the  Union. 

Meantime,  though  the  Garrison  party  were  mis- 
taken as  to  their  methods,  they  contributed  a  mighty 
influence  in  other  ways  toward  the  abolition  of  sla- 
very. As  agitators  they  were  unwearied  in  pointing 
out  the  evils  of  slavery.  Garrison,  Phillips,  Quincy, 
Wright,   Foster,    Burleigh,    Pilsbury,    Buffum — Mrs. 

j  an  oath  to  support  the  United  States  Constitution — a  Constitution 
which  we  held  to  be  a  covenant  with  Death,  and  an  agreement  with 

•  Hell — one  that  pledged  its  citizens  to  help  return  fugitive  slaves, 
which  we  never  intended  to  do,  but  just  the  contrary." 

No  doubt  that  Mr.  Phillips  only  did  what  was  right  and  honorable 

\  in  refusing  to  vote  while  holding  these  views.  He,  however,  did  more. 
He  advocated  the  dissolution  of  the  Union.  He  said  (Jan.  15,  1875), 
— "  For  my  parti  am  for  the  dissolution  of  the  Union,  and  I  seek  it 
as  an  abolitionist.  I  seek  it,  first  and  primarily,  to  protect  the  slave. 
Primarily,  it  is  an  Anti-Slavery  measure."  See  also  the  passage  quoted 
above  from  his  speech  of  Jan.  20,  1861.  The  fact  remains  that  sla- 
very was  abolished,  not  by  the  Dissolution  of  the  Union,  but  by  those 

I  who  resisted  its  dissolution. 


ANTI-SLA  VER  Y  DAYS,  ^l 

Child,  Mrs.  Chapman,  Lucretia  Mott,  Abby  Kelley, 
Lucy  Stone,  Mrs.  Follen,  Mrs.  Ellis  Gray  Loring,  the 
Mays,  the  Grimke  sisters,  and  many  more  labored  in- 
cessantly for  the  object.  Though  the  churches  in  a 
large  degree  were  lukewarm,  or  opposed  to  anti- 
slavery,  many  clergymen  of  all  denominations  were 
actively  on  the  side  of  this  movement.  Conspicuous 
among  these  were  such  men  as  Beriah  Green  and 
Henry  Ward  Beecher ;  and  among  the  Unitarian  7 
ministers,  whom  I  remember  the  best  as  being  one  of ' 
their  body,  who  took  an  open  part  in  the  anti-slavery 
struggle,  I  may  mention  Dr.  Channing,  John  Pier- 
pont,  Wm.  Henry  Furness,  Theodore  Parker,  Dr, 
Follen,  Noah  Worcester,  Dr.  Willard,  Henry  Ware, 
Jr.,  John  G.  Palfrey,  Thos.  T.  Stone,  Rufus  P.  Steb- 
bins,  Wm.  Henry  Channing,  John  T.  Sargent,  John 
Parkman,  Jr.,  Caleb  Stetson,  O.  B.  Frothingham,  Dr. 
Charles  Lowell,  Dr.  Francis,  George  F.  Simmons, 
John  Weiss,  Geo.  W.  Briggs,  Thomas  W.  Higginson, 
Fred.  Frothingham,  R.  F.  Wallcutt,  S.  R.  Craft,  i 
Charles  T.  Brooks,  and  others.  In  1845,  one  hun-j 
dred  and  seventy  Unitarian  Ministers  signed  a  protest 
against  slavery,  prepared  by  a  Committee  appointed 
for  that  purpose,  of  which  I  was  one.  It  was  drawn 
up  by  myself,  and  accepted  by  the  Committee  with 
some  slight  alterations  * 

*The  following  reminiscences  of  Dr.  Channing  by  Mrs.  Child  were 
written  after  his  death,  and  published  in  his  Memoir : — 

"  I  shall  always  recollect  the  first  time  I  ever  saw  Dr.  Channing  in 


132 


ANTI-SLA  VER  Y  DA  YS. 


One  of  the  most  eminent  opponents  of  slavery 
among  the  body  of  the  clergy,  was  Dr  John  G.  Pal- 
private.  It  was  immediately  after  I  published  my  '  Appeal  in  favor 
of  that  class  of  Americans  called  Africans,'  in  1833.  A  publication 
taking  broad  anti-slavery  ground  was  then  a  rarity.  I  sent  a  copy  to 
Dr.  Channing,  and  a  few  days  after  he  came  to  see  me  at  Cottage 
Place,  a  mile  and  a  half  from  his  residence  on  Mt.  Vernon  Street.  It 
was  a  very  bright  sunny  day ;  but  he  carried  his  cloak  on  his  arm  for 
fear  of  changes  in  temperature,  and  he  seemed  fatigued  with  the  long 
walk.  He  stayed  nearly  three  hours,  during  which  time  we  held  a 
most  interesting  conversation  on  the  general  interests  of  humanity, 
and  on  slavery  in  particular.  He  expressed  great  joy  at  the  publica- 
tion of  the  '  Appeal/  and  added,  '  The  reading  of  it  has  aroused  my 
conscience  to  the  query  whether  I  ought  to  remain  silent  on  the  sub- 
ject.' He  urged  me  never  to  desert  the  cause  through  evil  report  or 
good  report. 

"  We  afterwards  had  many  interviews.  He  often  sent  tor  me  when 
I  was  in  Boston,  and  always  urged  me  to  come  and  tell  him  of  every 
new  aspect  of  the  anti-slavery  cause.  At  every  interview  I  could  see 
that  he  grew  bolder  and  stronger  on  the  subject,  while  I  felt  that  I 
grew  wiser  and  more  just.  At  first  I  thought  him  timid,  and  even 
slightly  time-serving,  but  I  soon  discovered  that  I  formed  this  esti- 
mate merely  from  ignorance  of  his  character.  I  learned  that  it  was 
justice  to  all,  not  popularity  for  himself,  which  rendered  him  so  cau- 
tious. He  constantly  grew  upon  my  respect,  until  I  came  to  regard 
him  as  the  wisest  as  well  as  the  gentlest  apostle  of  humanity.  I  owe 
him  thanks  for  helping  to  preserve  me  from  the  one-sidedness  into 
which  zealous  reformers  are  apt  to  run.  He  never  sought  to  under- 
value the  importance  of  anti-slavery,  but  he  said  many  things  to  pre- 
vent my  looking  upon  it  as  the  only  question  interesting  to  humanity. 
My  mind  needed  this  check,  and  I  never  think  of  his  many-sided  con- 
versations without  deep  gratitude.  His  interest  in  the  subject  con- 
stantly increased,  and  I  never  met  him  without  being  struck  with  the 
progress  he  had  made  in  overcoming  some  difficulty  which  for  a  time 
troubled  his  sensitive  conscience.  I  can  distinctly  recollect  several 
such  steps.  At  one  time  he  was  doubtful  whether  it  was  right  to  pe- 
tition Congress  on  the  subject,  because  such  petitions  exasperated  our 
Southern  brethren,  and,  as  he  thought,  made  them  more  tenacious  of 
their  system.  He  afterwards  headed  petition  himself.  In  all  such 
cases  he  was  held  back  by  the  conscientious  fear  of  violating  some 


ANTI-SLA  VERY  DA  YS. 


133 


frey.  His  father  dying  in  New  Orleans,  left  to  his 
children  his  property,  a  part  of  which  was  in  slaves. 
Dr.  Palfrey's  brother  wrote  to  him  that,  as  he  probably 
would  not  wish  to  receive  slaves  as  his  share,  they 
would  make  an  arrangement  by  which  his  part  of  the 
estate  should  consist  of  something  else,  which  he 
could  conscientiously  take.  "  No  !  "  said  Dr.  Palfrey, 
"  that  would  be  exactly  the  same  as  though  I  had  sold 
the  slaves.  I  prefer  to  take  the  slaves,  and  I  propose 
to  emancipate  them."  But  he  found  that  he  could 
not  do  it  without  an  act  of  the  legislature  of  Louisiana. 
He  went  to  Louisiana  and  succeeded  in  getting  per- 
mission to  emancipate  them,  he  took  the  people  to 
Boston  and  by  the  help  of  some  anti-slavery  friends 
they  soon  became  able  to  support  themselves.  But 
Palfrey  was  not  the  man  to  speak  of  such  things  ;  he 
never  said  anything  about  it,  but  let  it  drop  into  for- 
getfulness  as  soon  as  possible.  Another  clergyman 
who  was  filled  with  zeal  on  this  subject  was  Theodore 
Parker,  who  not  only  preached  continually  in  regard 
to  all  the  events  that  occurred,  but  published  many 
pamphlets  and  papers  in  regard  to  slavery.  I  recol- 
lect that  they  began  as  early  as  the  time  of  the  Mexi- 
can war.  There  was  to  be  a  meeting  at  that  time  in 
Faneuil  Hall  to  oppose  the  war,   as  unnecessary  and 

other  duty  while  endeavoring  to  fulfil  his  duty  to  the  slave.  Some 
zealous  reformers  misunderstood  this,  and  construed  into  a  love  of 
popularity  what  was,  in  fact,  but  a  fine  sense  of  justice,  a  more  univer- 
sal love  of  his  species." 


I34  ANTI-SLA  VER Y  DA  YS. 

wrong.  The  hall  was  largely  filled  with  men  who  had 
enlisted  to  go  to  Mexico,  and  were  there  to  prevent  the 
speakers  from  being  heard.  I  sat  next  to  Theodore 
Parker  on  the  platform.  When  he  attempted  to. speak 
they  interrupted  him,  calling  out,  "  Throw  him  over !" 
He  stopped  and  said,  "  What  good  will  it  do  you  to 
throw  me  over  ?  You  are  men  of  Massachusetts, 
you  would  not  hurt  me,  I  have  not  the  least  fear  on 
that  subject  ;  I  shall  go  home  to-night  unarmed  and 
unattended,  and  none  of  you  here  will  do  me  any 
harm."     Then  they  cheered  him. 

I  know  of  churches  which  were  ready  from  first  to 
last,  always  to  hear  whatever  might  be  said  on  this 
subject  on  both  sides.  I  have  been  present  in  church- 
meetings  at  discussions  on  slavery  at  which  Mr.  Gar- 
rison, Mr.  Samuel  J.  May,  Horace  Greely,  and  other 
anti-slavery  men  spoke,  and  were,  I  remember,  re- 
plied to  by  the  friends  of  Mr.  Webster,  and  by  those 
who  strongly  opposed  abolition. 

A  rather  amusing  incident  took  place  in  my  own 
church  in  Boston,  on  one  occasion.  A  member  of  the 
society  had  left  us  and  had  gone  to  Theodore  Parker's. 
Mr.  Parker  said  to  us,  "  There  is  a  curious  man  who 
has  come  to  my  church  from  yours.  He  said  he 
heard  so  much  anti-slavery  preaching  in  your  church, 
that  he  meant  to  leave  it  and  come  to  mine." 

This  was  rather  droll,  considering  that  Theodore 
Parker  was  the  most  determined  and  constant  anti- 


ANTI-SLA VER Y  DAYS.  j 3 5 

slavery  preacher  in  the  city.  The  motive,  however, 
which  induced  this  gentleman  to  go,  was  a  strong  ser- 
mon he  had  recently  heard  in  my  pulpit  from  S.  J. 
May.  Shortly  after  this  there  was  a  meeting  in  Bos- 
ton of  a  body  of  come-outers,  who  were  Non-Residents 
and  Radicals  of  an  extreme  type.  They  could  not 
get  a  hall  in  which  to  hold  their  meetings  and  asked 
leave  to  occupy  our  church  on  Sunday  afternoon.  It 
was  granted  them.  I  went  to  see  what  they  were 
about,  and,  as  I  entered,  some  brother  from  the  rural 
districts  was  saying,  "  all  the  clergy  of  the  churches 
are  utterly  opposed  to  reform.  I  do  not  know  what 
this  church  is  where  we  are  meeting,  and  I  do  not 
know  who  the  minister  is,  but  I  venture  to  say  that  it 
is  wholly  pro-slavery,  and  that  the  minister  is  a  pro- 
slavery  man  too."  I  rose  and  told  them  the  story  of 
this  friend  who  had  gone  from  us  to  Parker,  in  order 
to  hear  less  anti-slavery  preaching,  and  added,  "  If 
you  have  any  doubt  as  to  the  accuracy  of  this  state- 
ment, you  can  inquire  of  the  man  himself,  for  I  see 
the  gentleman  here  this  afternoon  in  this  congrega- 
tion. 

In  1850  came  the  '«  Compromises,"  as  they  were 
called,  between  the  North  and  the  South,  between 
slavery  and  freedom.  They  were  called  Compromises, 
but  as  usual  their  influence  was  against  the  cause  of 
liberty.  There  had  been  for  a  long  time  a  bitter 
struggle  on  the  floor  of  Congress  between  the  Repre- 


1 36  A NTI-SLA  VER  Y  DA  VS. 

sentatives  from  the  North  and  the  South  on  the  sub- 
ject of  slavery.  This  ended  in  a  bill  proposed  by 
Henry  Clay  which  was  supported  both  by  the  Whigs 
and  Democrats.  After  a  long  struggle  which 
lasted  fully  four  months,  these  ""  Compromises,"  so 
called,  finally  passed,  and  the  bill  was  signed  by  the 
Acting  President,  Millard  Fillmore.  The  object  was 
to  put  an  end  to  all  further  discussion  in  regard  to 
slavery,  and  to  put  down  all  anti-slavery  agitation. 
Both  parties  pledged  themselves  to  prevent  any  more 
discussion.  The  bill  was  introduced  by  Henry  Clay 
on  May  8,  1850,  and  passed  Sept.  9,  the  same  year. 
The  particular  points  were  these  : 

1.  That  when  the  time  came,  four  more  slave  states 
were  to  be  admitted  from  Texas. 

2.  California  was  to  be  admitted  as  a  free  state. 

3.  There  was  to  be  no  Wilmot  proviso  passed  to 
forbid  slavery  in  the  territories. 

4.  Ten  million  dollars  was  to  be  given  to  Texas  for 
agreeing  to  assent  to  a  corrected  boundary  of  New 
Mexico. 

5.  The  New  Fugitive  Slave  Law  was  to  be  made 
effective,  by  which  slaveholders  could  more  easily  re- 
cover their  fugitive  slaves.  By  that  law  it  was  de- 
cided that  any  person  claiming  a  slave  might  go  before 
any  U.  S.  Commissioner,  and  by  proving  to  the  Com- 
missioner's satisfaction  the  identity  of  the  man,  and 
that  he  had  escaped  from  slavery,  he  could  carry  him 


ANTI-SLA  VER  Y  DAYS.  1 3  7 

into  slavery  without  any  trial  by  jury.  The  question 
was  to  be  decided  by  the  simple  opinion  of  the  U.  S. 
Commissioner  on  those  two  points. 

6.  The  last  point  of  the  compromise  was  that  the 
slave  trade  was  to  be  prohibited  in  the  District  of 
Columbia,  but  slavery  was  not  to  be  abolished  there. 

It  was  at  this  time  that  Mr.  Webster  made  his  7th 
of  March  speech  supporting  all  these  measures.  We 
have  not  space  to  discuss  here  the  question  of  the 
position  of  Mr.  Webster.  It  is  undeniable  that  great 
disappointment  was  felt  at  the  North,  not  only  by  the 
anti-slavery  people,  but  also  by  Mr.  Webster's  personal 
friends  and  supporters.  It  is  a  fact  sufficiently  vouched 
for  that  Mr.  Thomas  B.  Stevenson,  one  of  Mr.  Web- 
ster's strongest  friends  and  supporters,  was  so  aston- 
ished and  confounded  when  this  report  came,  that  he 
took  to  his  bed  for  some  days.  This  fact  has  been 
publicly  stated  by  Mr.  Stevenson's  own  sister. 

The  Massachusetts  legislature  were  much  agitated 
by  Mr.  Webster's  speech.  Conventions  were  called 
to  express  disapprobation,  and  the  whole  feeling  in 
Massachusetts  was  of  great  gloom  and  discourage- 
ment. The  feeling  was  that  Mr.  Webster  had  gone 
over  from  his  former  position,  that  he  had  allied  him- 
self to  the  South,  and  that  his  speech  was  a  bid  for 
the  Presidency,  His  course  was  severely  criticised 
by  many  leading  men  of  the  Whig  party,  to  which  he 
belonged.     J.  T.  Buckingham  said  in  the  legislature 


1 38  ANTI-SLA  VER  Y  DA  VS. 

that  he  had  been  a  personal  friend  of  Daniel  Web- 
ster's for  thirty  years  ;  that  he  had  looked  up  to  him 
as  a  mentor  and  guide,  but  "  we  are  now  on  the  opposite 
sides  of  the  moral  universe." 

In  1830,  when  Webster  made  his  great  speech  in 
answer  to  Hayne  of  South  Carolina,  I  recollect  the 
effect  produced  on  myself  as  on  others,  by  that  fa- 
mous sentence  in  which  he  speaks  of  Massachusetts  * 

I  know  I  felt  at  that  time  that  to  have  heard  that 
speech  delivered  I  would  willingly  have  walked  from 
Boston  to  Washington.  And  those  of  my  own  age 
who  had  been  brought  up  with  these  feelings  of  rev- 
erence for  Daniel  Webster,  and  also  had  been  taught 
by  him  and  others  to  abhor  slavery,  naturally  felt  all 
the  more  grieved  and  wounded,  at  what  seemed  to  us 
the  apostacy  of  our  great  chief.  Nothing  could  better 
express  our  feelings  than  Browning's  well  known 
lines  on  "  The  Lost  Leader,"  slightly   modified  thus  : 

"  We  who  had  loved  him  so,  followed  him,  honored  him, 
Lived  in  his  mild  and  magnificent  eye, 
Learned  his  great  language,  caught  his  clear  accents, 
Made  him  our  pattern  to  live  and  to  die. 

*  u  Mr.  President,  I  will  enter  into  no  encomium  on  Massachusetts. 
She  needs  none.  There  she  is.  Look  at  her,  and  judge  for  yourselves. 
There  is  her  history.  The  world  knows  it  by  heart.  The  past,  at 
least,  is  secure.  There  are  Concord  and  Lexington,  Boston  and 
Bunker  Hill,  and  there  they  will  stand  forever.  The  bones  of  her 
sons,  fallen  in  the  great  struggle  for  Independence,  lie  mingled  with 
the  soil  of  every  State,  from  Maine  to  Georgia,  and  there  thev  will  lie 
forever." 


ANTI-SLA  VER  Y  DA  VS.  1 39 

"Chatham  was  for  us,  Franklin  was  of  us, 
Washington,  Jefferson  watched  from  their  graves, 
He  alone,  breaks  from  the  van  and  the  freemen — 
He  alone  sinks  to  the  rear  and  the  slaves." 

After  the  years  which  have  passed,  softening  all 
feelings,  these  words  may  be  too  severe.  But  even 
now  we  can  read  with  sympathy  Whittier's  solemn 
dirge,  repeated  by  Horace  Mann  in  the  House  of 
Representatives,  in  reference  to  this  7th  of  March 
speech. 

"  So  fallen !  so  lost !  the  light  withdrawn, 
Which  once  he  wore ! 
The  glory  from  his  grey  hairs  gone 
For  evermore. 

**  Revile  him  not,  the  tempter  hath 
A  snare  for  all ! 
And  pitying  tears.,  not  scorn  and  wrath, 
Befit  his  fall. 

"  O  1  dumb  be  passion's  stormy  rage, 

When  he  who  might 

Have  lighted  up  and  led  his  age 

Falls  back  in  night. 
***** 

"  Of  all  we  loved  and  honored,  naught 

Save  power  remains, — 

A  fallen  angel's  pride  of  thought, 

Still  strong  in  chains. 

All  else  is  gone  ;  from  those  great  eyes 

The  soul  has  fled; 

When  faith  is  lost,  when  honor  dies 

The  man  is  dead." 

Now  the  friends  of  Mr.  Webster  say  that  this  is  all 
unjust ;  that  Mr.  Webster  was  actuated  simply  by  his 


t  4q  A  NTI-SLA  VER  Y  DA  YS. 

desire  to  save  the  Union  and  maintain  the  Constitu- 
tion, and  the  rights  which  the  South  had  under  the 
Constitution  ;  to  keep  the  contract  which  the  fathers 
had  made,  and  that  it  was  on  this  account  alone  that 
he  made  this  speech.  They  say  that  he  felt  that  the 
Union  stood  in  great  peril,  and  that  he  must  go  as  far 
as  he  could  in  doing  what  might  be  done  in  support- 
ing some  kind  of  compromise  on  which  the  North  and 
South  could  unite.  There  is  no  doubt  that  he  ought 
to  have  the  credit  of  this  reasoning.  I  certainly  be- 
lieve that  this  was  in  a  large  measure  the  motive  which 
actuated  Mr.  Webster  at  the  time.  Nevertheless 
there  was  this  conviction  in  the  minds  of  men  that  he 
had  made  a  change,  and  a  great  change.  He  had 
again  and  again  denounced  slavery,  and  the  slave- 
power.  For  instance  in  his  first  speech  on  Foote's 
Resolutions,  he  said  this  of  Dane's  resolution  exclud- 
ing slavery  from  the  Northwest  Territories.  (Web- 
ster's works,  vol.  3,  page  263.) 

"  I  doubt  whether  one  single  law  of  any  lawgiver, 
ancient  or  modern,  has  produced  effects  of  more  dis- 
tinct, marked  and  lasting  a  character  than  the  Ordi- 
nance of  1787.  The  instrument  was  drawn  by  Nathan 
Dane,  then  and  now,  a  citizen  of  Massachusetts.  It 
fixed  forever  the  character  of  the  population  in  the  vast 
region  northwest  of  the  Ohio,  by  excluding  from  them 
involuntary  servitude.  It  impressed  on  the  soil  itself, 
while  yet  a  wilderness,  an  incapacity  to  sustain  any 


ANTI-SLA  VER  Y  DAYS.  141 

other  than  freemen."  Webster  calls  it  "  a  vast  good 
obtained,"  "  a  great  and  salutary  measure  of  preven- 
tion." He  asks  any  intelligent  Kentuckian  if  such  an 
ordinance  had  been  offered  to  his  State  when  a  wilder- 
ness, "whether  he  does  not  suppose  it  would  have 
contributed  to  the  ultimate  greatness  of  that  common- 
wealth." 

And  now  it  was  proposed  to  affix  a  similar  legal 
barrier  by  the  Wilmot  Proviso  to  prevent  slavery  from 
entering  the  newly  acquired  territory  of  New  Mexico 
and  California,  and  Mr.  Webster  refused  to  do  it. 

He  had  said,  (Aug.  12,  1848),  "I  shall  consent  to 
no  extension  of  slavery  on  this  continent  nor  to  any 
increase  of  slave  representation  in  the  other  House  of 
Congress."  After  taking  this  position,  to  leave  it  be- 
cause he  believed  that  from  the  conformation  of  the 
land  in  New  Mexico,  slavery  could  not  enter  it,  show- 
ed a  very  important  change  of  position.  He  said  that 
the  law  of  nature,  and  the  law  of  physical  geography 
settled  forever  the  fact  that  slavery  could  not  exist  in 
California  and  New  Mexico.  But  there  were  silver 
mining  and  gold  mining  in  those  territories  and  there 
has  never  been  a  gold  or  silver  mining  country  where 
slavery  has  not  been  welcome.  If  the  land  is  fertile, 
slavery  comes  in  to  increase  the  amount  of  wealth 
produced  from  the  soil,  as  is  the  case  in  the  cotton 
regions.  If  the  soil  is  barren  and  sterile,  slavery 
comes  in  to  take  the  hard  labor  from  the  hands  of  the 


142 


ANTI-SLA  VER  Y  DA  YS 


people  and  put  it  on  the  shoulders  of  the  slave.  Mr. 
Webster  said,  "  if  a  bill  were  now  before  us  to  provide 
a  territorial  government  for  New  Mexico,  I  would  not 
vote  to  put  any  prohibition  of  slavery  into  it  what- 
ever." That  was  one  of  the  things  which  shocked  the 
North. 

Mr.  Webster  gave,  as  his  only  reason  for  refusing  to 
exclude  slavery  by  law  from  the  new  territories,  that 
it  was  already  excluded  by  a  law  of  nature,  and  that  he 
would  not  uselessly  re-affirm  an  ordinance  of  nature,  or 
re-enact  the  will  of  God.  But  did  not  Mr.  Webster  know 
that  all  our  laws  are  meant  to  carry  out  the  will  of  God, 
that  when  we  make  a  law  against  theft  or  murder  "wo 
re-enact  the  will  of  God  ?" 

He  maintained,  however,  that  this  proviso  was  use- 
less, because  the  formation  of  the  earth  in  these  ter- 
ritories settled  forever  that  slavery  could  not  exist  in 
California  or  New  Mexico.  He  explained  his  meaning 
by  saying,  "  California  and  New  Mexico  are  Asiatic 
in  their  formation  and  scenery.  They  are  composed 
of  vast  ridges  of  mountains  of  great  height."  If 
an  "Asiatic"  conformation  could  exclude  slavery, 
it  is  somewhat  remarkable  that  slavery  exists  now, 
and  has  existed  for  centuries  in  every  country  of  Asia, 
as  I  believe  without  one  exception,  unless  where  it  has 
been  abolished  by  positive  enactment  of  European 
Governments. 

Another  serious  complaint  made  against  Mr.  Web- 


ANTI-SLA  VER  Y  DA  KS*.  T  43 

ster  was  this — that  after  declaring  that  a  trial  by  jury 
ought  to  be  given  under  the  fugitive  law,  he  voted  for 
Mr.  Mason's  bill,  by  which  no  such  right  was  con- 
ferred. In  1848  (Aug.  12),  he  had  said,  "  It  was  a 
maxim  of  the  Civil  Law  that  between  slavery  and 
freedom,  freedom  should  always  be  preserved,  and 
slavery  must  be  proved."  "  Such,  I  suppose,  is  the 
general  law  of  mankind."  But,  by  Mr.  Mason's  bill, 
slavery  was  preserved,  and  liberty  had  to  be  proved. 
A  colored  man,  living  in  a  free  State,  paying  taxes  as 
a  free  man,  regarded  by  all  as  free,  could  be  seized 
and  carried  away  as  a  slave  without  seeing  either  a 
judge  or  a  jury.  And  this,  though  the  Constitution 
of  the  United  States  declares  that  "  No  one  shall  be 
deprived  of  life,  liberty  or  property  without  due  pro- 
cess of  law." 

Mr.  Wilson,  in  his  history  of  the  "  Rise  and  Fall  of 
t.he  Slave-Power,"  charges  Mr.  Webster  also  with 
gratuitously  volunteering  his  opinion  that  Congress 
was  bound  to  divide  Texas  hereafter  into  four  slave- 
holding  States.  I  think  that  this  charge,  (which  I 
also  on  one  occasion  endorsed  in  public),  can  hardly 
be  maintained,  in  view  of  the  fact  that  four  new  States 
were  allowed  in  the  joint  resolution  by  which  Texas 
was  annexed  to  the  Union,  though  it  did  not  deter- 
mine  that  they  should  necessarily  be  slave  States." 

Now  we  might  consider  that  Mr.  Webster  was  ac- 
tuated by  a  desire  to  preserve  the  Union  from  danger 


!  44  ANTI-S.LA  VER  Y  DA  VS. 

and  dissolution,  and  to  do  justice  to  the  provisions  of 
the  Constitution  if  he  had  done  no  more  than  this. 
But  he  did  a  great  deal  more.  The  anti-slavery  peo- 
ple always  said  that  one  of  his  motives  was  a  desire 
to  be  President  of  the  United  States,  and  his  friends 
have  admitted  that  fact.  They  have  admitted  not 
only  that  he  desired  to  be  President  of  the  United 
States,  but  that  he  was  very  much  disappointed  in  not 
getting  a  nomination.  A  pamphlet  has  lately  been 
published  containing  the  address  of  Mr.  Stephen  M. 
Allen,  President  of  the  Webster  Historical  Society, 
made  at  the  Webster  Centennial,  October  12,  1882. 
In  his  address,  Mr.  Allen  says,  "  That  Daniel  Web- 
ster wanted  to  be  President  of  the  United  States,  I 
concede.  But  that  was  a  laudable  ambition."  "  He 
believed  to  his  dying  day  that  if  the  people  had  had 
their  own  way,  unbiased  by  selfish  and  jealous  party- 
leaders,  he  would  have  been  elected  President  of  the 
United  States." 

But  if  Mr.  Webster  had  fixed  his  heart  upon  that 
position,  what  follows  ?  That  he  must  have  known, 
perfectly  well,  by  his  long  experience  in  Washington, 
that  no  one  could  be  elected  President  in  1852  but  by 
the  consent  of  the  slave-power.  He  knew  that  the 
slave-power  would  not  consent  to  the  election  of  any 
man  who  did  not  show  to  them  that  he  was  on  their 
side  in  their  determination  to  extend  slavery  into  all 
the  territories,  and  to  maintain  it  by  all  means  where 


ANTI-SLAVERY  DAYS.  I45 

it  existed.  He  could  not  have  hoped  for  a  nomination 
unless  he  was  willing  to  show  them  that  he  would  go 
as  far  as  any  other  leading  Whig  to  satisfy  them  on 
these  points,  and  that  he  was  able  and  willing  to  de- 
fend their  interests  more  powerfully  than  any  other 
man  who  could  be  nominated.  He  made  quite  a 
number  of  campaign  speeches,  in  which  he  violently 
denounced  the  anti-slavery  party,  abused  the  aboli- 
tionists, called  them  a  "rub-a-dub"  party,  and  said 
many  other  similar  things.  When  speaking  in  Vir- 
ginia he  said  that  the  higher  law  was  an  absurdity. 
"  What  is  the  higher  law  ? "  said  he,  "  How  high  is 
it  ?  Is  it  higher  than  the  Blue  Ridge  ?  Higher 
than  the  Alleghany  Mountains  ?  "  It  seems  impossi- 
ble to  believe  that  a  man  of  his  great  intelligence 
could  have  said  such  things  as  this,  unless  his  motive 
was  to  please  the  South  and  to  obtain  the  next  presi- 
dential nomination. 

But,  after  all,  we  must  remember  his  great  services. 
The  power  which  he  exercised  in  creating  and  main- 
taining a  Union  sentiment  was  certainly  one  great 
factor  in  the  war  for  Union  and  Freedom.  There 
were  two  great  forces  which  united  to  enable  the 
North  to  conquer — the  love  of  the  Union  and  the  love 
of  Freedom.  Mr.  Webster  had  contributed  mightily 
to  create  that  love  of  the  Union  which  resisted  Seces 
sion,  and  which  sternly  opposed  the  dissolution  of 
that  Union.     Meantime,  the  anti-slavery  movement, 


i  46  ANTI-SLA  VER  Y  DA  VS. 

led  by  Garrison  and  his  friends,  with  the  aid  of  the 
great  political  anti-slavery  parties,  had  done  as  much 
to  create  an  abhorrence  of  slavery  and  its  extension. 
And  these  two  great  forces  united  in  their  opposition 
to  Secession,  which  struck  its  blow  at  once  against 
Union  and  against  Freedom.  The  dissolution  of  the 
Union  would  have  perpetuated  slavery.  There  cer- 
tainly has  never  been  in  this  country  any  other  public 
man  who  had  such  a  commanding  genius  as  Daniel 
Webster — never  one  who  had  so  much  reserved  force. 
One  of  the  most  pathetic  and  tragic  features  of  the 
whole  affair  was  that  he  never  seemed  to  have  a  cause 
equal  to  his  capacity,  and  that  the  only  cause  which 
would  have  been  sufficiently  great  to  bring  out  all  his 
ability  was  the  anti-slavery  movement.  If  he  had  put 
himself  at  the  head  of  the  movement,  all  other  intel- 
lects would  have  paled  before  the  majesty  of  his  intel- 
ligence. Mr.  Bryant,  on  one  occasion,  in  the  Evening 
Post,  quoted  Milton's  description  of  one  of  the  rebel 
angels,  applying  it  to  Mr.  Webster,  and  the  descrip- 
tion of  his  person  and  bearing  is  very  accurate. 

"  With  grave 
Aspect  he  rose,  and  in  his  rising  seemed 
A  pillar  of  state.     Deep  on  his  brow  engraved 
Deliberation  sat  and  public  care, 
And  princely  counsel  in  his  face  yet  shone, 
Majestic  though  in  ruin.     Sage  he  stood, 
With  atlantean  shoulders  fit  to  bear 
The  weight  of  mightiest  monarchies.     His  look 
Drew  audience  and  attention  still  as  night 
And  summer's  noontide  air,  while  thus  he  spoke." 


ANTI-SLA  VERY  DA  YS. 


147 


If  this  description  had  been  written  expressly  for 
Mr.  Webster,  it  could^  not  have  been  more  exact. 
Probably,  Milton,  who  was  in  London  during  the 
debates  of  the  Long  Parliament,  meant  to  give  recol- 
lections of  Pym's  oratory  in  these  lines,  and  that  of 
Wentworth  in  the  description  of  Belial. 

There  never  was  so  dark  a  time  in  the  history  of 
this  conflict  as  after  these  compromises  of  1850.  Mr. 
Webster's  speeches  exercised  an  immense  influence 
to  check  the  whole  anti-slavery  movement.  It  was 
agreed  by  the  leaders  of  public  opinion  that  nothing 
more  should  be  said  on  the  subject ;  the  anti-slavery 
men  must  be  silenced.  And  then  a  woman  spoke, 
and  the  whole  world  began  again  to  talk  about  slavery. 
Uncle  Tom's  Cabin  was  printed  in  the  National  Era 
in  numbers  between  the  5th  of  June,  185 1,  and  April 
1st,  1852,  while  Mr.  Gamaliel  Bailey  was  editor.  He 
had  written  to  Mrs.  Stowe,  asking  if  she  could  not 
write  a  story  bringing  in  facts  about  slavery,  long 
enough  to  fill  a  column  or  two,  in  two  or  three  suc- 
cessive numbers  of  the  Era.  But  it  grew  under  her 
hands  until  it  resulted  in  the  most  popular  work  of 
modern  times.  It  was  published  in  book  form  in 
1852.  In  eight  weeks  100,000  copies  were  sold  ;  in 
a  year  200,000.  In  1856,  313,000  had  been  circu- 
lated. In  London  thirty  editions  were  published  in 
six  months.  In  the  British  Museum,  there  are  forty- 
three   different   editions   in    English.     In   1852  one 


X  48  ANTI-SLA  VER  Y  DA  YS. 

million  copies  had  been  sold  in  England.  All  over 
Europe  the  book  had  a  like  rapid  and  large  success. 
Translations  were  made  into  French,  German,  Dutch, 
Italian,  Russian,  Magyar,  Wallachian,  Welsh,  Danish, 
Swedish,  Portuguese,  Spanish,  Polish,  Armenian, 
Arabic,  Chinese,  and  Japanese.  There  are  more 
than  fifty-five  different  translations  of  this  book  now 
in  the  British  Museum.  It  was  one  of  the  most  won- 
derful successes  in  literature.  I  was  travelling  in 
Europe  a  year  or  two  after  it  was  written,  and  was 
told  in  some  bookstores  in  Germany  and  Italy,  that 
they  found  it  difficult  to  publish  any  other  novels. 
They  sold  nothing  but  "  Uncle  Tom,"  or  some  other 
book  connected  with  it.  In  every  picture  gallery,  we 
saw  scenes  from  "  Uncle  Tom's  Cabin."  It  was  said 
that  a  colored  man  obtained  a  great  deal  of  success  in 
England  by  pretending  that  he  was  "  George,"  and 
that  he  had  just  got  back  from  Liberia.  This  novel 
seemed  almost  like  a  work  of  inspiration.  It  was 
full  of  accurate  knowledge  of  the  South,  although 
Mrs.  Stowe  had  scarcely  been  in  any  of  the  Slave 
States.  Her  pictures  of  southern  life  were  vivid  and 
charming.  The  story  was  intensely  interesting ; 
justice  was  done  to  the  kind  masters  and  slaveholders. 
Slave  manners  and  customs  were  graphically  painted  ; 
plantation  scenes  vividly  described.  The  terrible 
tragedy  of  the  book  was  relieved  by  fortunate  escapes, 
by  droll    incidents   and    frequent   touches   of    quiet 


ANTI-SLA  VER  Y  DA  YS.  1 49 

humor.  What  can  be  better,  for  instance,  to  mention 
one  out  of  many  points,  than  the  account  of  the  Ohio 
Senator  who  is  introduced  arguing  with  his  wife  that 
slaves  must  be  returned  to  their  owners,  that  it  is 
highly  improper  not  to  execute  the  fugitive  slave 
law  ;  and  then  when  the  door  opens  and  the  poor 
runaway  slave-girl  comes  in,  what  does  this  senator 
do  but  tackle  up  his  horse  and  wagon  and  carry  her 
to  the  nearest  station  on  the  underground  Railroad  ? 
It  is  a  book  to  rank  forever  with  the  five  or  six  im- 
mortal stories  which  will  never  die,  Don  Quixote,  the 
Pilgrim's  Progress,  Robinson  Crusoe,  Gulliver's 
Travels,  the  Vicar  of  Wakefield.  Its  influence  in  the 
progress  of  the  movement  was  great  but  quite  incal- 
culable. A  flood  of  light  was  thrown  upon  the  ques- 
tion of  slavery.  It  was  held  up  before  all  mankind, 
and  the  power  of  the  public  opinion  of  the  world  was 
brought  to  bear  on  it.  Everything  else  that  was  ever 
written  on  this  subject  sinks  to  comparative  insigni- 
ficance beside  this  book.  It  reaches  the  common 
heart  of  man,  in  cot  or  castle,  in  Arctic  zone  or 
African  sands. 

A  pamphlet  by  Austin  Bearse,  "  Reminiscences  of 
Fugitive  Slave  Law  days  in  Boston,  1880," — contains 
an  account  of  the  Vigilance  Committee  in  that  city, 
which  was  organized  to  protect  fugitives  from  slavery 
and  keep  them  from  being  returned.  The  names  of 
the  officers  and  members  are  given,  including  many 


j  50  -         ANTI-SLA  VER  Y  DA  YS. 

of  the  best  men  of  the  city.  The  pamphlet  describes 
in  a  vivid  manner  the  sufferings  and  heroism  of  the 
fugitives  and  the  way  in  which  they  were  taken  care 
of  by  this  Committee.  He  mentions  that  when  Mrs. 
Stowe  was  about  to  write  her  "  Key  to  Uncle  Tom's 
Cabin,"  she  was  taken  by  Mr.  R.  F.  Walcutt  and  Mr. 
Bearse  to  Lewis  Hayden's  house,  where  she  saw 
thirteen  newly  escaped  slaves, 

Another  interesting  pamphlet,  published  in  1864 
by  James  McKaye,  Esq.,  as  a  report  to  Mr.  Stanton, 
is  called  "  The  emancipated  slave,  face  to  face  with 
his  old  master."  Mr.  McKaye  was  one  of  the  com- 
mission appointed  by  Secretary  Stanton  to  obtain  in- 
formation concerning  the  past  and  present  condition 
of  the  colored  people  in  the  slave  states.  Its  account 
of  the  cruelties  inflicted  on  slaves  is  too  harrowing 
to  be  more  than  referred  to.  One  story,  however, 
will  bear  repeating.  It  is  of  Octave  Johnson,  who 
was  in  1864  a  corporal  in  the  Cofps  d'Afrique.  His 
owner,  a  Mr.  Coutsell,  of  Louisiana,  had  ordered  him 
to  be  whipped  severely  for  falling  asleep  over  his 
work.  Octave  had  never  been  whipped,  and  imme- 
diately ran  for  the  swamp.  He  was  a  very  fast  run- 
ner, and  escaped  his  pursuers,  and  after  some  days 
found  a  band  of  refugees  in  the  depths  of  the  jungles. 
His  master,  determined  not  to  lose  him,  hired  a 
famous  professional  slave-hunter  with  a  pack  of 
twenty  hounds  to  recover  him.     Notice  of  this  was 


ANTI-SLA VER Y  DAYS.  151 

given  in  advance  to  the  fugitives  who  put  their 
women  in  a  place  of  safety,  rubbing  the  soles  of  their 
feet  with  the  blood  of  rabbits  to  deceive  the  hounds, 
and  then  waited  their  coming  with  clubs.  They 
killed  eight  of  the  dogs,  slowly  retreating  as  they 
fought.  Toward  sundown,  being  completely  exhaust- 
ed and  torn  by  the  teeth  of  the  dogs,  they  scattered 
and  fled.  Octave  and  some  of  his  companions  ran 
for  a  bayou,  which  they  found  full  of  alligators.  They 
scrambled  across,  over  roots  and  fallen  trees  and  es- 
caped. The  hounds  followed,  but  the  alligators,  not 
attacking  the  negroes,  killed  six  of  the  dogs,  and  the 
rest  were  recalled.  Octave  being  asked  why  it  was 
that  the  alligators  had  spared  the  men,  replied, 
"  Dunno,  Massa.  Some  of  'em  said  dey  tought  it 
was  God  made  'em  do  it ;  but  'pears  to  me  de  alliga- 
tors loved  dog's  flesh  better'n  personal  flesh!** 

Octave  lived  in  the  swamp  with  this  party  of  ten 
women  and  twenty  men  for  eighteen  months.  At  the 
end  of  that  time  New  Orleans  fell  into  the  hands  of 
the  Union  troops,  and  it  became  the  turn  of  the  mas- 
ters to  escape. 

But  perhaps  the  most  interesting  narratives  of  es- 
caped slaves  is  to  be  found  in  Mrs.  Child's  "  Life  of 
Isaac  Hopper."  Mr.  Hopper,  a  member  of  the  Society 
of  Friends,  was  the  protector  during  many  years,  of 
the  escaped  fugitives  who  came  to  Philadelphia.  By 
his   courage,  coolness,  knowledge  of  law,   tact   and 


^2  A  NTI-SLA  VER  Y  DA  YS. 

readiness  of  mind,  he  almost  always  found  some  way 
to  baffle  the  slave-hunter. 

To  the  slaveholder,  brought  up  to  regard  slaves  as 
his  lawful  property,  alt  such  proceedings  seemed 
wholly  unjustifiable.  To  help  a  fugitive  to  escape  was 
to  them  the  same  as  taking  so  much  money  out  of 
their  purse.  But  to  most  Northern  men  the  right  of 
every  man  to  his  own  freedom  was  a  self-evident 
truth.  If  told  that  the  Constitution  and  laws  forbade 
helping  a  fugitive  to  escape,  they  appealed  to  "  the 
higher  law,"  recognized  by  the  greatest  jurists  as 
superior  to  human  enactments.  They  quoted  the  dec- 
laration of  the  apostles  to  the  Jewish  authorities, — 
"  Whether  it  be  right  in  the  sight  of  God  to  harken 
unto  you  more  than  unto  God,  judge  ye." 

Once  when  the  minds  of  the  community  were  oc- 
cupied with  these  discussions,  I  was  expecting  a  visit 
from  some  relatives,  a  gentleman  and  his  wife,  natives 
of  Georgia,  and  slaveholders.  All  my  family  were 
strictly  warned  not  to  say  a  word  about  slaves  or 
slavery.  But  this  Southerner  had  hardly  been  in  the 
house  half  an  hour  before  he  introduced  the  subject, 
and  we  spent  the  whole  evening  in  an  earnest,  but 
amicable  discussion.  Among  other  things,  he  asked 
me  how  I,  as  a  Christian,  could  help  slaves  to  escape 
when  the  Apostle  Paul,  in  the  epistle  to  Philemon, 
had  set  the  example  of  sending  one  back  into  slavery. 
I  requested  him  to  read  the  epistle  with  me,  calling 


ANTI-SLA  VER  Y  DAYS.  153 

his  attention  to  the  passage  in  which  Paul  asked  Phil- 
emon to  receive  back  this  fugitive,  "  not  now  as  a  ser- 
vant, but  above  a  servant,  a  brother  beloved."  I  told 
my  Southern  friend  that  I  would  readily  send  back  a 
fugitive,  if  I  could  depend  on  his  not  being  received 
as  a  slave,  but  as  a  brother.  The  good  Georgian, 
being  a  man  of  candor,  admitted  that  the  tone  of 
this  epistle  was  not  much  of  a  support  to  the  fugitive 
slave  law. 

When  combustible  substances  have  been  accumu_ 
lating  for  years,  a  single  flash  of  lightning  will  set 
them  into  flames.  This  flash  was  the  raid  of  John 
Brown  at  Harper's  Ferry.  He  has  been  often  charged 
with  going  there  to  excite  an  insurrection  among 
the  slaves.  Such  was  not  his  intention.  His  pur- 
pose was  to  run  off  gangs  of  slaves  into  Pennsylvania 
and  make  them  free,  in  order  to  make  slavery  insecure 
in  the  border  states.  I  first  saw  John  Brown  at 
Charles  Sumner's  house  in  Hancock  street,  Boston. 
I  called  to  see  how  Mr.  Sumner  was.  I  was  shown 
to  his  chamber,  where  he  was  reclining  on  the  bed. 
Three  men  were  in  the  room  with  him,  Captain  John 
Brown,  one  of  his  sons,  and  James  Redpath.  In  the 
course  of  the  conversation  the  circumstances  of  the 
assault  on  Sumner  were  referred  to,  and  he  said, 
"  The  coat  I  had  on  is  hanging  in  that  closet."  John 
Brown  went  to  the  closet,  took  out  the  coat,  and  look- 
ed at  it  as  a  devotee  would  contemplate  the  relic  of  a 


1 5  4  ANTI-SLA  VER  Y  DA  VS. 

saint.  Mr.  Sanborn  in  his  life  of  of  John  Brown,  says 
this  was  the  only  time  in  which  he  and  Sumner  are 
known  to  have  met. 

Then  came  the  days  of  John  Brown,  of  Oswatomie. 
He  appeared  in  Kansas  resisting  the  attacks  of  the 
Missonrians.  He  was  brought  up  in  the  hatred  of 
slavery.  He  was  born  in  Torrington,  Conn.,  in  the 
year  1800,  and  taken  to  the  Western  Reserve  in  1805 
by  his  father,  who  was  an  anti-slavery  man  and  an 
Old  Testament  Christian.  John  Brown  believed  in 
fighting,  as  the  saints  of  the  Old  Testament  believed 
in  it,  and  he  went  to  Kansas  taking  with  him  six 
sons  simply  for  the  purpose  of  aiding  the  people  of 
Kansas  to  make  that  a  free  state. 

In  1858,  I  met  him  in  Dr.  Howe's  office.  He  was 
then  arranging  his  raid  on  Harper's  Ferry.  He  said 
that  he  was  proposing  to  do  something  which  should 
alarm  the  slaveholders  along  the  northern  line  of 
slavery,  and  make  them  feel  that  they  could  not  hold 
their  slaves  in  safety,  and  so  induce  them  to  move 
South,  and  he  hoped  thus,  by  a  series  of  attacks  along 
the  border,  that  slavery  would  gradually  be  pushed  fur- 
ther South,  and  all  the  rest  of  the  territory  would  be 
free  soil.  That  was  his  plan.  He  said,  "  I  am  pro- 
posing to  do  on  a  larger  scale  what  I  did  in  Kansas. 
When  I  found  that  the  Missouri  people  were  in  the 
habit  of  attacking  us  in  Kansas,  I  saw  that  we  must 
fight  fire  with  fire.      So  I  organized  a  party   and   in- 


ANTI-SLA  VER Y  DAYS.  l55 

vaded  Missouri,  and  carried  off  a  whole  party  of  slaves 
some  20  or  30.  I  took  them  into  Kansas,  and  march- 
ed them  through  Nebraska  and  Iowa  into  Illinois,  and 
finally  carried  them  over  into  Canada,  where  they 
were  free.  Though  the  papers  told  every  day  where 
we  were,  yet  on  one  occasion  only  was  I  hindered 
on  my  march.  I  was  crossing  into  Nebraska,  when 
the  United  States  marshal  came  into  the  hut  or  log 
cabin  where  I  was  with  only  a  few  men,  and  ordered 
me  to  give  up  the  slaves  to  him,  and  to  his  orders. 
I  took  my  rifle,"  said  old  John  Brown,  "  and  I  told 
him  I  would  give  him  two  minutes  to  leave  in,  and  no 
more.  But  if  I  had  known  he  was  one  of  the  men 
who  murdered  my  friends  in  Kansas,  I  wouldn't  have 
given  him  those  two  minutes."  The  next  day  the 
marshal,  with  a  large  posse  of  men  waited  for  Brown's 
party  to  cross  the  river.  John  Brown  had  only  about 
20  men.  He  formed  his  men  into  two  lines ;  and 
they  charged  into  the  river,  and  by  the  time  they  had 
reached  the  other  side  the  marshal's  party  broke  and 
ran.  Brown's  men  pursued,  caught  the  marshal,  made 
him  dismount,  and  put  an  old  colored  woman  and  her 
baby  on  his  horse,  which  they  compelled  him  to  lead 
during  the  rest  of  the  day. 

The  following  incident  was  related  to  me  by  General 
Carrington : 

"  When  I  was  a  boy  and  went  to  school  in  Torring- 
ton,  there  came  into  the  schoolroom  one  day  a  tall 


i  5  6  ANT/SLA  VER  Y  DA  VS. 

man.  rather  slender,  with  grayish  hair,  who  said  to  the 
boys  :  '  I  want  to  ask  you  some  questions,  in  geo- 
graphy. Where  is  Africa  ? '  'It  is  on  the  other  side 
of  the  ocean,  of  course,'  said  a  boy.  '  Why  "  of 
course  "  '  asked  the  man.  The  boy  couldn't  say,  '  why 
"  of  course.  "  '  Then  the  man  proceeded  to  tell  them 
something  about  Africa  and  the  negroes,  and  the  evil 
of  the  slave  trade,  the  wrongs  and  sufferings  of  the 
slaves,  and  then  said,  '  How  many  of  you  boys  will 
agree  to  use  your  influence,  whatever  it  may  be, 
against  this  great  curse,  when  you  grow  up  ? '  They 
held  up  their  hands.  He  then  said  that  he  was  afraid 
some  of  them  might  forget  it,  and  added,  '  Now  I 
want  those  who  are  quite  sure  that  they  will  not  for- 
get it,  who  will  promise  to  use  their  time  and  influence 
toward  resisting  this  great  evil,  to  rise.'  Another  boy 
and  I  stood  up.  Then,  this  man  put  his  hands  on  our 
heads,  and  said,  '  Now  may  my  Father  in  heaven,  who 
is  your  Father,  and  who  is  the  Father  of  the  African  ; 
and  Christ,  who  is  my  Master  and  Saviour,  and  your 
Master  and  Saviour,  and  the  Master  and  Saviour  of 
the  African ;  and  the  Holy  Spirit,  which  gives  me 
strength  and  comfort  when  I  need  it,  and  will  give 
you  strength  and  comfort  when  you  need  it,  and 
which  gives  strength  and  comfort  to  the  African, — 
enable  you  to  keep  this  resolution  which  you  have  now 
taken.'     And  that  man  was  John  Brown.5' 

I   have   in   my   possession   two   autograph   letters 


ANTI-SLA  VER Y  DAYS.  t^ 

written  by  him  in  prison,  before  his  execution ;  one 
to  Mrs.  Marcus  Spring,  who  went  to  Virginia  to  offer 
him  whatever  comfort  or  assistance  he  might  need. 
In  this  note  he  thanks  her  warmly  for  her  kindness, 
and  invokes  on  her  the  blessing  of  the  God  of  his 
fathers.  In  the  other  he  writes  to  a  clergyman  whom 
he  knew  and  esteemed.  He  tells  him  that  he  is  at 
perfect  peace  j  that  his  death  will  do  more  than  his 
life  would  have  done,  and  he  should  on  the  whole  be 
sorry  to  be  released,  because  if  he  lived  he  might  do 
something  which  would  let  him  down  to  a  lower  level 
than  that  on  which  he  had  previously  lived. 

We  remember  how  when  John  Brown  was  being 
led  to  execution,  he  remarked  on  the  beauty  of  the 
scenery.  He  saw  on  the  way  a  colored  woman  with 
a  colored  infant  in  her  arms.  He  took  the  colored 
infant  in  his  arms  and  kissed  it.  Only  a  few  months 
after  that,  I  was  riding  through  Virginia  woods  by 
moonlight,  and  a  regiment  of  Wisconsin  soldiers  were 
marching  by,  singing,  "  John  Brown's  body  lies  moul- 
dering in  the  ground.  His  soul  is  marching  on."  And 
his  soul  was  marching  on.  It  marched  on  until  the 
whole  South  was  redeemed. 


1 58  ANTI-SLA  VER  Y  DA  YS> 


CHAPTER  VI. 

THE   COMBAT   DEEPENS. 

"  Up  to  our  altars,  then, 
Haste  we,  and  summon 
Courage  and  loveliness 

Manhood  and  woman ! 
Deep  let  our  pledges  be, 

Freedom  forever ! 

Truce  with  oppression  ? 

Never,  O,  never !  " 

Whittier. 

The  compromises  of  1850  were  intended  to  settle 
the  question  between  slavery  and  anti-slavery  for  all 
time.  But  it  is  a  mistake  to  suppose  that  you  can 
compromise  principles.  It  is  always  right  and  proper 
to  effect  compromises  if  possible  between  opposing 
interests,  but  not  between  opposing  principles.  In 
the  latter  case  it  is  saying  '■  Peace  !  Peace !  where 
there  is  no  peace."  It  is  as  the  scripture  forcibly 
puts  it,  u  daubing  a  wall  with  untempered  mortar,  so 
that  when  a  fox  runs  up  on  it,  he  will  break  it  down." 

Scarcely  had  these  compromises  of  1850  been  ar- 
ranged  when  the  war  of  tongue  and  pen,  and  political 


ANTI-SLA  VER  Y  DA  YS.  Y  S9 

action,  recommenced  and  raged  more  violently  than 
ever.  During  the  next  ten  years,  from  1850  to  i860, 
the  slave-power  gained  many  victories.  It  elected 
Pierce  in  1856  and  Buchanan  in  1856.  They  were 
both  Northerners  and  both  were  subservient  to  the 
slave-power.  The  slaveholders  had  found  that  the 
Southern  men,  like  Zachary  Taylor,  though  slave- 
holders, were  not  so  submissive  to  their  dictation,  as 
northern  men  like  Pierce  and  Buchanan. 

The  slaveholders  had  secured  the  repeal  of  the 
Missouri  Compromise  of  1820,  which  had  divided  the 
territories  between  slavery  and  freedom.  This  start- 
ling event  opened  Kansas  and  Nebraska  to  slavery. 
This  was  accomplished  under  the  lead  of  Stephen  A. 
Douglas,  an  eminent  northern  Democrat.  He  took 
the  ground  which  was  called  "  Squatter  Sove- 
reignty ;  "  namely,  that  the  people  of  the  territory  were 
themselves  to  decide  whether  they  would  allow  slavery 
to  exist  among  them  when  the  territory  became  a 
state.  Congress  was  not  allowed  to  prohibit  slave- 
holders from  settling  with  their  slaves  in  any  place, 
while  under  territorial  government,  Of  course,  it 
was  intended  and  expected  that  when  the  time  came 
for  adopting  a  state  constitution,  slavery  would  be 
already  there,  and  the  territory  would  become  a  slave 
state  as  a  matter  of  necessity.  Under  the  influence 
of  Stephen  A.  Douglas  the  law  of  "  Squatter  Sove- 
reignty "  was  pressed  through  Congress,  and  this  was 


i  60  ANTI-SLA  VER  Y  DA  VS. 

Mr.  Douglas'  offer  for  the  presidency.  He  gave  to 
the  slave-power  all  the  territories,  to  be  turned  into 
slave  states. 

The  next  act  of  the  slave-power  was  to  establish 
the  Lecompton  Constitution  in  Kansas.  This  con- 
stitution had  been  formed  by  Missouri  slaveholders 
who  had  gone  into  Kansas  and  taken  possession  of 
the  polls.  They  had,  to  support  therri,  the  whole 
strength  of  the  executive  power  under  Pierce  and 
Buchanan,  and  they  used  it  as  far  as  they  could  to 
put  down  freedom  in  Kansas.  The  history  of  the 
Kansas  struggle  is  still  to  be  written.  It  is  full  of 
lights  and  shades,  heroisms  and  villany,  tragic  ad- 
venture and  romantic  exploits.  As  Kentucky  was 
the  w  dark  and  bloody  ground  "  in  an  earlier  day,  so 
Kansas  was  the  dark  and  bloody  ground  during  the 
conflict  of  freedom  and  slavery.  It  was  a  struggle  be- 
tween powers  so  unequal  that  it  seemed  like  desper- 
ation on  the  part  of  the  anti-slavery  party  to  hope  for 
success.  The  slaveholders  of  Missouri,  close  at  hand 
and  far  more  numerous  than  the  Kansas  population, 
invaded  the  territory,  massacred  the  free  settlers,  took 
possession  of  the  polls,  elected  a  slaveholders^  legis 
lature  and  formed  a  slave  state  constitution.  A  Con- 
gress controlled  by  the  slave-power,  and  two  presi- 
dents, accepted  these  acts  as  legal,  and  gave  the  mili- 
tary forces  of  the  Union  to  enforce  them.  This  was 
the  outcome  of  "  Squatter  Sovereignty  " — that  neither 


AtfTf-SLA  VER  Y  DAYS.  1 6 1 

the  squatters  nor  the  bona  fide  settlers  in  Kansas  were 
permitted  to  form  their  own  Constitution  ;  Congress 
Lad  abdicated  in  favor  of  the  border  ruffians  of  Mis- 
souri. 

But  the  free  state  settlers  of  Kansas  were  not  easily 
discouraged.  They  knew  they  had  right  on  their  side, 
and  were  determined  to  maintain  it.  Their  right  was 
so  clear,  indeed,  that  a  number  of  governors,  selected 
and  appointed  by  Presidents  Pierce  and  Buchanan, 
with  the  purpose  of  putting  down  freedom,  were  con- 
verted by  the  sight  of  the  terrible  facts,  and  became 
opposed  to  the  slaveholders'  iniquity.  Like  Balaam 
they  went  to  curse,  and  they  remained  to  bless.  So 
it  was  with  Governor  Reeder,  who  was  opposed  to  free 
soil  when  sent  out  as  governor  in  1854.  He  ordered 
an  election  for  the  legislature.  The  Missourians  came 
across  the  line,  took  possession  of  the  polls,  and  chose 
the  legislators.  This  was  more  than  Governor  Reeder 
could  bear,  and  he  set  aside  the  election.  For  this  he 
was  removed  by  Pierce,  and  Shannon  appointed  in  his 
place,  who  made  a  speech  on  his  way,  to  the  Missouri 
people,  telling  them  he  was  in  favor  of  slavery  in 
Kansas.  But  he,  too,  was  converted  by  the  sight  of 
the  cruel  persecutions  and  murders  inflicted  on  the 
people  of  Kansas,  and  was  therefore  removed,  and  Gov- 
ernor Geary  appointed.  He  also  became  disgusted, 
and  resigned,  and  Robert  J.  Walker  was  then  made 
govern er.     Walker  had  been  in  high  favor  with  the 


X  6  2  A  NTI-SLA  VER  Y  DA  VS. 

slave-power,  but  he  too  resigned,  not  rinding  himself 
willing  to  do  the  work  required  of  him  by  President 
Buchanan.  Meanwhile,  in  spite  of  opposition,  the 
free  state  settlers  had  poured  into  Kansas  in  such 
numbers  that  they  were  becoming  as  numerous  as  the 
invaders  from  Missouri,  and  able  to  hold  their  own 
against  them,  in  battle. 

For  the  condition  of  things  in  Kansas  was  that  of 
war.  Those  who  find  fault  with  Captain  John  Brown 
of  Osawatomie  for  fighting  fire  with  fire,  should  re, 
member  the  murders  and  assassinations  of  the  free 
state  men,  which  were  being  done  with  impunity.  John 
Brown  was  an  Old  Testament  hero,  who  believed  in 
retaliation,  and  was  determined  that  these  murders 
should  cease.  He  resisted  the  invaders,  and  defeated 
them  in  the  field.  He  also  approved  of  killing  those 
who  had  murdered  free  state  men  in  cold  blood,  and 
who  could  not  be  punished  by  law.  In  this  I  think 
him  wrong. 

The  people  of  the  North  determined  that  slavery 
should  be  excluded  by  the  majority  of  the  inhabitants. 
Emigration  aid  societies  were  formed  in  Massachu- 
setts,  which  sent  colonists  to  Kansas  to  make  it  a  free 
state.  In  July,  1854,  one  of  these  founded  Lawrence  ; 
another  followed  and  founded  Topeka.  As  soon  as  it 
was  understood  that  this  was  being  done,  the  people 
of  Missouri  invaded  Kansas  and  attempted  to  drive 
the  free  settlers  away.     They  entered  Kansas  again 


ANTI-SLA  VER  Y  DA  VS.  1 63 

and  again,  as  we  have  seen,  at  the  time  of  elections, 
and  elected  a  pro-slavery  delegate  to  Congress  ;  and 
this  was  done  by  the  advice  of  a  Senator  from  Mis- 
souri. 

The  free-state  men  met  at  Topeka  and  formed  the 
Topeka  Constitution  in  October,  1855. 

The  Missourians  continued  to  enter  Kansas  and  to 
murder  the  free-state  men.  One  man  named  Barber, 
an  unoffensive  man,  was  shot  down  by  an  Indian 
agent  named  Clark,  for  refusing  to  follow  him  when 
ordered  to  do  so.  Yet,  though  this  was  well  known, 
President  Pierce  retained  this  man  in  office.  The 
Missouri  people  attempted  to  destroy  Lawrence,  but 
Governor  Shannon  permitted  the  residents  to  arm  and 
protect  themselves.  Thereupon  the  Missourians  de- 
nounced Shannon  as  an  abolitionist,  and  he  was  re- 
moved. In  1856,  Ccl.  Buford  brought  from  the  South 
to  Kansas  a  regiment,  with  the  avowed  purpose  of 
driving  out  the  free-state  men.  The  President  and 
Senator  Douglas  supported  the  invaders.  In  May, 
the  town  of  Lawrence  was  attacked  by  the  Missouri 
slaveholders,  and  the  hotel,  printing  offices,  and  other 
buildings  were  destroyed.  The  free  state  legislature 
was  dispersed  by  Col.  Sumner,  an  officer  of  the  United 
States  army,  under  orders  from  Washington.  He 
told  the  members  that  it  was  contrary  to  his  own  feel- 
ings  and  wishes,  but  he  was  obliged  to  do  so  under 
positive  orders  from  the  President. 


!  64  ANTI-SLA  VER  V  DA  VS. 

In  1857,  the  Lecompton  Constitution  was  adopted 
by  a  convention  chosen  by  the  Missourians.  Presi- 
dent Pierce  maintained  that  this  was  the  true  consti- 
tution for  Kansas,  although  he  knew  that  it  was  formed 
entirely  by  those  who  were  from  outside  the  State. 
He  knew  that  a  great  majority  of  the  people  wanted 
to  make  it  a  free  state.  The  Lecompton  Constitu- 
tion passed  Congress  under  the  influence  of  Pierce 
and  the  Democrats  ;  but  the  people  of  Kansas  refused 
to  accept  it.  They  were  supported  by  the  people  of 
New  England.  There  was  a  free  state  league,  which 
met  at  the  house  of  Dr.  Samuel  Cabot  in  Boston.  He 
was  the  President.  It  sent  out  Sharp's  rifles  to  enable 
the  people  to  defend  themselves.  George  L.  Stearns 
was  another  friend  of  John  Brown  who  aided  the 
cause  of  freedom  in  Kansas  with  great  generosity. 
Another  free-state  league  was  formed  with  Mrs. 
Cabot  at  the  head,  which  sent  out  food  and  clothing 
from  all  parts  of  New  England.  This  was  brought  to 
Boston  and  forwarded  to  Kansas.  These  efforts  had 
much  to  do  with  the  final  result,  which  caused  Kansas 
to  become  a  free  State. 

On  the  19th  and  20th  of  May,  1856,  Charles  Sum- 
ner delivered  his  speech  in  the  United  States  Senate 
on  the  "  Crime  against  Kansas."  It  combined  argu- 
ment and  invective,  and  exposed  in  plain  language  the 
cruel  injustice  done  to  the  free  citizens  of  Kansas  by 


ANTI-SLA  VER  Y  DA  YS.  1 65 

the  United  States  Government.  Whittier  said  "  it 
was  the  severe  and  awful  truth,  which  the  sharp  agony 
of  the  national  crisis  demanded."  The  slaveholders 
in  Congress  were  excited  to  madness  by  this  exposure, 
and  to  inflict  personal  injury  on  Sumner  was  the  only 
answer  in  their  power.  Sumner  was  assaulted  in  his 
seat,  as  he  was  writing,  after  the  adjournment  of  the 
Senate,  by  Preston  S.  Brooks,  of  South  Carolina.  The 
injuries  were  so  severe  that  it  was  four  years  before 
he  took  his  seat  again  in  the  Senate,  during  which 
time  Massachusetts  left  his  chair  empty.*  If  this 
atrocious  attack  on  the  freedom  of  speech  in  Congress 
had  been  the  work  of  a  single  assassin,  as  was  the 
murder  of  Lincoln  by  Booth,  it  would  have  been  less 
injurious  to  the  Southern  interests.  But  while  the 
South  repudiated  Booth,  it  endorsed  Brooks.  Brooks 
was  censured  by  a  majority  of  the  House,  resigned 
his  seat,  and  was  triumphantly  re-elected.  His  action 
in  assaulting  Sumner  was  applauded  by  the  Southern 
press  with  almost  entire  unanimity.  He  was  pre- 
sented with  canes ;  he  was  congratulated  by  South- 
ern statesmen.  Toombs,  Jefferson  Davis,  Mason, 
expressed  their  entire  approval  of  his  course.  Presi- 
dent Buchanan,  while  he  called  Sumner's  speech  "  the 
most  vulgar  tirade  of  abuse  ever  delivered  in  a  repre- 

*As  Tacitus  says  of  the  absent  statues  of  Brutus  and  Cassius  at 
the  funeral  of  Junia,  he  was  the  more  conspicuous  because  not  there. 


1 66  '    ANTI-SLAVERY. 

sentative  body,  added  that  "  Mr.  Brooks  was  incon- 
siderate." 

This  murderous  assault  on  freedom,  in  the  person 
of  its  defender,  like  every  other  triumph  of  the  slave- 
power,  was  in  reality  a  defeat  and  a  disaster.  Many 
who  before  had  stood  aloof  from  the  anti-slavery  move- 
ment, now  made  up  their  minds  that  resistance  to 
the  lawless  arrogance  of  the  slaveholders,  had  become 
a  matter  of  necessity. 

Mr.  Sumner  once  showed  me  an  "  Album  Amico- 
rum,"  such  as  were  kept  by  European  scholars  at  the 
revival  of  learning,  in  which  to  receive  the  autographs 
of  their  brother  scholars  throughout  Europe.  The 
one  in  the  possession  of  Charles  Sumner  contained 
some  lines  in  the  handwriting  of  John  Milton.  They 
consisted  of  his  name — the  two  last  lines  of  Comus  : — 

"  Or,  if  virtue  feeble  were, 
Heaven  itself  would  stoop  to  her." 

and  the  Latin  line,  slightly  modified  thus — 

"Ccelum,  non  animam,  muto,  cum  trans  mare  curio." 

Sumner,  when  he  showed  me  this  autograph,  told 
me  he  was  especially  desirous  of  possessing  an  auto- 
graph of  Milton,  because  of  what  happened  after  his 
injury.  He  was  much  discouraged  one  day,  and 
thought  he  should  never  be  able  to  resume  his  seat  in 
the  Seriate.  But  taking  up  a  volume  of  Milton,  his 
eye  fell  on  Milton's  sonnet  on  his  blindness,  and  it 
encouraged  Sumner,  as  if  Milton  were  himself  speaking 
to  him  from  another  world, — 


ANTI-SLAVERY  DAYS.  167 

*  What  supports  me,  dost  thou  ask  ? 

The  conscience,  friend,  to  have  lost  them,  overplied 

In  liberty's  defence,  my  noble  task 

Of  which  all  Europe  rings  from  side  to  side." 

Another  victory  of  the  slave-power  was  won  in  1857, 
when  the  Supreme  Court  of  the  United  States  decided 
by  the  mouth  of  Chief  Justice  Taney,  that  Congress 
had  no  right  to  forbid  the  extension  of  slavery  through 
the  territories  of  the  Union,  and  that  no  colored  per- 
son could  be  a  citizen  of  the  United  States,  if  his  an- 
cestors had  ever  been  slaves  ;  consequently  no  free 
colored  man,  though  a  citizen  of  Massachusetts  under 
its  laws,  could  sue  or  be  sued  in  the  United  States 
Courts.  This  paper  defied  the  facts  of  history  by 
saying  that  when  the  Constitution  was  formed  the 
colored  people  were  regarded  as  of  an  inferior  order, 
and  "  having  no  rights  which  the  white  men  were  bound 
to  respect."  Judge  Taney  declared  that  the  signers  of 
the  Declaration  of  Independence  regarded  the  blacks 
only  as  property,  not  as  persons.  When  he  wrote 
this,  Judge  Taney  had  before  him  the  declaration  of 
Jefferson,  Franklin,  and  others  of  their  generations, 
on  the  injustice  of  holding  colored  men  as  slaves.  The 
court  then  decided  that  the  Missouri  Compromise, 
and  all  other  acts  of  Congress  restricting  slaveholders 
from  carrying  their  slaves  into  the  territory  of  the 
Union,  were  unconstitutional. 

It  was  a  satisfaction  to  some  of  us  in  Massachusetts, 
that  Judge  Benjamin  R.  Curtis  dissented  from  this 


1 68  ANTI-SLA  VER  Y  DA  YS. 

opinion,  and  demolished  the  argument  of  the  Chief 
Justice  by  the  weight  of  facts  which  could  not  be 
denied  and  a  logic  which  could  not  be  resisted.  We 
who  were  fellow-citizens,  fellow-classmates,  and  aware 
of  the  ability  of  Judge  Curtis,  were  thankful  that  he 
was  then  on  the  bench  to  destroy  the  sophisms  and 
expose  the  ignorance  of  Judge  Taney. 

The  Fugitive  Slave  Law  of  1850,  passed  as  a  part 
of  the  Compromise,"  was  liable  to  very  grave  objec- 
tions. The  Constitution  of  the  United  States  declares 
that  "  in  suits  at  common  law,  where  the  value  of  con- 
troversy exceeds  twenty  dollars  the  right  of  trial  by 
jury  shall  be  preserved,"  and  that  "  no  one  shall  be 
deprived  of  life,  liberty  and  property  without  due 
process  of  law."  But  by  the  action  of  the  Fugitive 
Slave  Law,  a  colored  man  in  a  free  state,  living  as  a 
free  man,  might  be  seized  as  a  slave  and  taken  into 
Southern  slavery  without  seeing  either  a  judge  or  a 
jury.  Such  cases  occurred.  In  one  case  a  colored 
man,  Adam  Gibson,  was  seized  as  a  slave  in  Pennsyl- 
vania, and  surrendered  by  Edward  D.  Ingraham, 
United  States  Commissioner,  with  indecent  haste. 
He  was  taken  to  Elkton,  Maryland.  There  the  sup- 
posed owner,  Mr.  William  T.  Knight,  refused  to 
receive  him,  saying  he  was  not  the  man,  and  he  was 
restored  to  freedom.  In  this  instance  the  slaveholder 
was  far  more  honorable  than  the  United  States  Com- 
missioner.    But  this  case  showed  how  easy  it  was  for 


ANTI-SLA  VER  Y  DA  VS.  1 69 

a  free  colored  man  to  be  kidnapped  under  this  law. 
Mr.  Webster  had  said  "  there  is  no  danger  of  any  such 
violation  "  (by  a  false  claim)  "  being  perpetrated."  In 
five  months  after  Mr.  Webster  had  given  this  re- 
assuring promise,  the  above  case  of  a  false  claim  and 
delivery  of  a  free  man  into  slavery  took  place.  In 
fact,  under  this  law,  the  kidnapping  of  free  persons 
became  a  regular  business.  The  courts  decided  that 
a  man  claiming  a  slave  had  the  right  to  seize  him 
without  a  warrant  and  take  him  away.  Oliver  Ander- 
son, a  colored  man  living  near  Chillicothe,  Ohio,  was 
dragged  from  his  house  in  the  night  of  October  nth, 
1859,  and  carried  to  Kentucky  without  any  examina- 
tion or  trial.  Two  Ohio  kidnappers  who  assisted  the 
Kentuckian,  were  tried  and  acquitted  on  the  ground 
that  under  the  Prigg  decision,  a  master,  (or  one  claim 
ing  to  be  an  owner)  may  seize  his  slave,  and  call  any 
person  to  help  him  and  take  him  away,  without  any 
process  of  law.  In  all  these  decisions  it  was  assumed, 
prima  facie,  that  the  person  claimed  as  a  slave  must 
be  a  slave,  and  the  person  claiming  him,  the  owner. 
This  was  the  tacit  assumption  of  the  Fugitive  Slave 
Law  itself.  The  possibility  that  the  person  seized 
might  be  a  free  man,  falsely  claimed,  was  quietly 
ignored.  A  tract  was  published  by  the  American 
Anti-Slavery  Society,  called  "  The  Fugitive  Slave  Law 
and  its  victims,"  which  gives  the  names  of  hundreds 
of  colored  people  taken  from  the  North  into  slavery 


i  7  o  ANTI-S.LA  VER  Y  DA  VS. 

under  this  law  in  the  ten  years  following  its  enactment. 
The  place,  date  and  circumstances  are  given  in  each 
case. 

The  most  important  cases  in  Boston  were  those  of 
Shadrach  (February,  185 1),  Thomas  Sims  (April, 
185 1),  and  Anthony  Burns  (May,  1854).  Shadrach 
was  rescued,  Sims  was  delivered  by  the  decision  of 
George  Ticknor  Curtis,  Burns  by  that  of  Edward  G. 
Loring.  Probably,  few  things  made  so  many  con- 
verts in  Boston  to  anti-slavery  as  these  events.  It 
brought  the  matter  home  to  the  people.  It  so  hap- 
pened that  to  prevent  a  rescue  in  the  case  of  Sims, 
the  court  house  was  surrounded  by  heavy  chains, 
which  seemed  the  natural  symbol  of  the  degradation 
of  Massachusetts  and  her  laws. 

After  the  rescue  of  Shadrach  several  persons  were 
indicted  for  the  offence  in  the  United  States  court. 
One  of  these  was  Lewis  Hayden,  himself  a  fugitive 
slave,  who  had  escaped  from  Kentucky  in  former 
years.  I  had  the  pleasure  of  becoming  acquainted 
with  him  when  he  first  came  to  Boston.  He  told  one 
evening  the  story  of  his  slavery  and  escape,  in  the 
church  of  which  I  am  the  pastor,  and  moved  us  all 
deeply  by  the  pathos  of  his  narrative.  At  the  time  of 
the  rescue  of  Shadrach  I  was  residing  in  Western 
Pennsylvania,  and  hearing  of  the  indictment  of  Mr. 
Hayden,  wrote  to  him  expressing  my  sympathy.  In 
reply,  I  received  the  following  characteristic  letter, 


ANTI-SLA  VER  Y  DA  VS. 


171 


written  at  his  request  by  John  A.  Andrew,  afterwarsd 
the  war  governor  of  Massachusetts. 

Boston,  5th  March,  1857. 

Dear  Friend  : — 

Lewis  Hayden  received  a  line  from  you 
last  evening,  which  he  begged  me  to  answer  in  his  be- 
half, and  to  express  for  him  the  gratitude  he  feels  for 
the  kindness  and  sympathy  you  entertain  towards 
him.  It  gratified  him,  beyond  measure,  that  you 
should  thus  remember  him.  He  is  bound  over  to  an- 
swer to  the  next  term  of  the  United  States  district 
court.  But  I  have  no  idea  that  he,  or  any  other  per- 
son, will  be  convicted.  The  poorest  colored  man 
finds  no  difficulty  in  procuring  bail  at  a  moment's 
warning.  I  think  there  is  a  reaction  commencing, 
.  .  .  The  rescue  of  Shadrach  was  a  noble  thing — 
nobly  done.  .  .  .  The  thing  was  the  result  of  the 
extemporaneous  effort,  energy  and  enthusiasm  of  one 
old  man,  a  personal  friend  of  Shadrach,  who  stimu- 
lated by  his  own  stubborn  zeal  the  few  with  whom  he 
came  in  contact,  to  follow  him  in  his  determination  to 
save  his  friend  (whose  horror  of  a  return  to  slavery  he 
had  always  known)  from  the  hands  of  the  law,  at  what- 
ever personal  hazard.  That  man  will  never  be  found. 
Indeed,  all  the  principal  actors  are,  as  I  understand, 
beyond  the  reach  of  process. 

God  grant  that  no  man  may  ever   be   sent   from 
Massachusetts   into  the  prison  house  of  slavery.     I 


!  7  2  ANTI-SLA  VER  Y  DA  VS. 

hate  war  and  love  peace  ;  but  I  should  less  regret  the 
death  of  a  hundred  men  defending  successfully  the 
sacred  rights  of  human  nature  and  the  blood-bought 
liberties  of  freemen,  alike  cloven  down  by  this  infer- 
nal law,  than  I  would  the  return  to  bondage  of  a  single 
fugitive. 

Your  friend, 

John  A.  Andrew. 

The  prayer  of  John  Andrew  was  not  granted  ;  Sims 
and  Burns  were  both  remanded  to  slavery.  But  the 
excitement  produced  by  these  renditions  created  many 
new  and  determined  foes  to  this  aggressive  system. 
I  read,  in  Western  Pennsylvania,  the  terrible  denun- 
ciation of  "  The  Sims  Commissioner,"  from  the  plat- 
form in  the  Music  Hall,  where  Theodore  Parker, 
every  Sunday,  poured  forth  his  floods  of  fiery  elo- 
quence. At  the  rendition  of  Burns  I  was  in  Boston. 
I  saw  the  crowds  assembled  in  State  Street  and 
Washington  Street  on  that  gloomy  day,  when  the 
slave-power  triumphed,  as  George  the  Third  triumphed 
at  Bunker  Hill.  "  One  more  such  victory,"  they 
might  have  said,  "  and  we  are  ruined."  I  saw,  from 
the  window  of  John  A.  Andrew's  chambers,  the 
lawyers'  offices  hung  with  black.  I  saw  the  cavalry, 
artillery,  marines  and  police,  a  thousand  strong, 
escorting,  with  shotted  guns,  one  trembling  colored 
man  to  the  vessel  which  was  to  carrv  him  to  slavery. 


ANTI-SLA  VER  Y  DA  YS.  ^  73 

I  heard  the  curses,  both  loud  and  deep,  poured  on 
these  soldiers ;  I  saw  the  red  flush  in  their  cheek  as 
the  crowd  yelled  at  them,  "  Kidnappers !  Kidnap- 
pers !  "  It  was  evident  that  a  very  trifling  incident 
might  have  brought  on  a  collision,  and  flooded  the 
streets  with  blood. 

Meantime,  in  the  ten  years  which  preceded  the 
civil  war,  the  anti-slavery  cause  won  a  succession  of 
moral  as  well  as  political  victories. 

The  publication  of  Uncle  Tom's  Cabin,  not  only 
electrified  the  whole  world,  but  poured  a  flood  of 
light  into  the  mysteries  of  slavery  in  the  South. 

More  champions  of  freedom  were  constantly  elected 
to  Congress.  After  John  P.  Hale  had  stood  alone 
for  some  years  in  the  Senate,  he  was  reinforced  by 
Salmon  P.  Chase,  who  was  elected  in  1849  from 
Ohio  ;  by  William  H.  Seward  from  New  York  in 
1850  ;  by  Charles  Sumner  in  185 1,  and  Henry  Wilson 
in  1854.  Other  strong  men  were  added  to  the  Sen- 
ate, like  Benj.  F.  Wade,  in  185 r.  "Is  it  not  hard," 
asked  Mr.  Badger  of  North  Carolina,  during  the 
debate  on  the  Kansas-Nebraska  bill,  "  if  I  should 
emigrate  to  Kansas,  that  I  should  be  forbidden  to 
take  my  old  mammy  "  (slave-nurse)  "  along  with  me  ?" 
"  The  Senator  entirely  mistakes  our  position,"  re- 
sponded Mr.  Wade,  "We  have  not  the  least  objection 
to  the  Senator's  migrating  to  Kansas,  and  taking  his 
old  mammy  with  him.     We  only  insist  that  he  shall 


iy4  A  NTI-SLA  VER  Y  DA  YS. 

not  be  permitted  to  sell  her,  after  he  has  taken  her 
there." 

In  the  House  of  Representatives,  a  strong  body  of 
determined  anti-slavery  men  gradually  collected.  A 
leader  among  them  was  Joshua  R.  Giddings,  of  Ohio, 
one  who  never  feared  the  face  of  man,  and  so  devoted 
to  the  cause  of  liberty  that  he  seized  every  oppor- 
tunity of  bearding  the  lion  in  his  den.  With  him 
were  associated  at  one  time  John  Gorham  Palfrey  of 
Massachusetts,  Horace  Mann  of  Illinois,  a  brother  of 
the  murdered  Lovejoy,  and  other  men  of  the  same 
sterling  quality. 

Meantime  Mr.  Garrison  and  his  friends  were  show- 
ing increased  activity,  and  were  using  powerful  mo- 
tives outside  of  all  politics,  and  which  appealed  only 
to  the  reason  and  conscience.  At  the  same  time 
there  was  a  steady  increase  of  the  political  party  op- 
posed to  slavery.  When  in  1856  General  Fremont 
received  over  a  million  votes,  it  indicated  what  was 
coming  four  years  later  when  Lincoln  was  elected 
President.  And  the  South  well  understood  that  it 
was  as  certain  as  anything  could  be,  that  the  anti- 
slavery  principle  was  to  triumph  eventually,  as  it  did 
in  Lincoln's  election.  This  determined  the  Slave 
States  to  dissolve  the  Union  by  seceding  from  it.  It 
was  a  long  time  before  the  North  could  be  made  to 
believe  that  the  South  was  in  earnest  in  this.  I  re- 
member that  Wendell  Phillips  used  to  laugh  at  the 


ANTI-SLA  VER  Y  DAYS.  Ty^ 

idea.  He  said  it  was  like  a  set  of  paupers  in  a  poor- 
house  saying  that  they  were  going  to  dissolve  their 
union  with  the  town.  He  thought  it  was  rather  brag 
and  bluster  than  a  sincere  purpose.  The  slaveholders, 
on  the  other  hand,  thought  the  North  would  never 
fight.  They  were  sure,  as  one  of  their  orators  said 
directly  after  the  organization  of  the  Confederacy, 
that  in  fifty  days  the  flag  of  the  Confederacy  would 
float  over  Washington,  and  in  a  few  more  weeks  over 
Faneuil  Hall  in  Boston  ! 

As  we  look  back  now  on  this  act  of  secession,  it  il- 
lustrates what  has  often  been  shown  in  history,  the 
truth  of  the  old  proverb  :  "  Whom  God  wishes  to  de- 
stroy, he  first  makes  mad."  It  was  madness  in  the 
slave-power  to  give  up  all  they  had  gained.  They 
held  the  government  of  the  country  in  their  hands. 
Before  Alexander  H.  Stephens  accepted  the  vice- 
presidency  of  the  Southern  Confederacy,  he  made  a 
speech  before  the  State  Convention  of  Georgia,  in 
which  he  pointed  out  how  the  South  had  everything 
in  its  hands  ;  all  the  majorities  in  Congress  ;  more 
than  their  share  of  presidents,  secretaries  of  state, 
judges  in  the  Supreme  Court ;  and  great  public  offices. 
It  was  throwing  it  all  away  to  secede.  They  had  on 
their  side  the  Democratic  party.  The  northern  Dem- 
ocrats were  politically  subservient  to  the  slave-power, 
but  this  power  deliberately  broke  down  this  party  by 
insisting  on  the  protection  of  slavery  in  the  territories 


x  y  6  ANTI-SLA  VER  Y  DA  VS. 

by  the  Federal  Government.  Douglas  had  gone  so 
far  as  to  accept  the  principle  of  "  Squatter-sovereign- 
ty," which  had  a  Democratic  sound,  and  which  left 
the  people  themselves  to  decide  in  every  place  what 
their  institutions  should  be.  But  when  the  southern 
leaders  insisted  that  he  should  turn  squarely  round, 
and  maintain  that  the  people  of  a  territory  should  not 
decide,  but  that  their  institutions  should  be  decided 
for  them  ;  that  they  should  be  obliged  to  admit  slavery, 
and  that  the  Federal  Government  should  enforce  this 
obligation,  it  was  evident  that  neither  Mr.  Douglas 
nor  his  supporters  could  take  that  step.  Therefore, 
because  the  Democratic  party  was  unwilling  to  go 
all  lengths  with  them,  the  slaveholders  were  willing 
to  break  down  its  power. 

What  did  the  Republican  party  contend  for  ?  Only 
this  :  that  slavery  should  not  be  permitted  to  go  into 
the  territories  where  it  did  not  already  exist.  Henry 
Clay  had  said  over  and  over  again,  that,  by  his  con- 
sent, no  foot  of  soil  then  free  from  slavery  should  ever 
support  a  slave  ;  and  that  was  all  that  the  Republican 
party  demanded  in  electing  Lincoln.  They  had 
declared  that  they  did  not  believe  Congress  had  any 
power  to  interfere  with  the  institution  of  slavery  in 
the  slave  states,  The  Southerners  had  secured  the 
passage  of  the  Fugitive  Slave  Law.  It  was  in  full 
operation  and  declared  by  the  U.  S.  Supreme  Court 
to  be  Constitutional.     They  had  the  immense  terri- 


ANTI-SLA  VER  Y  DAYS.  xyy 

ritory  of  Texas  to  fill  with  slaves,  and  the  promise 
that  four  more  states  should  be  cut  out  of  it  from 
which  to  make  slave  states.  The  state  of  Texas  con- 
tains 273,000  square  miles,  an  amount  of  territory 
equal  to  the  whole  of  New  England,  added  to  New 
York,  Pennsylvania,  Maryland,  Delaware,  New  Jersey 
and  Virginia,  They  had  all  this  territory  to  over- 
spread with  slavery,  and  the  Republican  party  made 
no  opposition  to  it.  But  made  confident  "by  continued 
success,  animated  by  a  haughty  contempt  of  the 
North,  thinking  that  the  people  of  the  Free  States 
were  so  peaceful  and  devoted  to  money-making,  and 
so  much  in  love  with  trade  and  commerce  that  they 
would  never  resist  secession  ;  believing  that  "  Cotton 
was  King,"  and  that  they  could  have  an  alliance  with 
foreign  powers  whenever  they  wished  it,  they  deter- 
mined to  form  a  great  slaveholding  empire.  Then  I 
think  there  was  another  reason  which  made  them 
secede.  Notwithstanding  their  assertion  that  slavery 
was  right,  there  was  a  constant  disturbance  of  con- 
science coming  to  them  by  being  compelled  to  hear 
anti-slavery  doctrines.  As  long  as  they  were  in  rela- 
tion with  the  North  they  could  not  wholly  escape  it. 
They  imagined,  if  they  separated  from  the  North, 
they  could  shut  out  all  this,  and  that  these  obnoxious 
truths  might  be  prevented  from  filling  their  ears. 
Their  consciences  were  in  an  irritable  state  and  they 
wanted  quiet. 


1 7  8  ANTISLA  VER  Y  DA  VS. 

Therefore,  in  the  Democratic  Convention  in  i860, 
the  Representatives  of  the  Slave  States  insisted  on 
the  Federal  protection  of  slavery  in  all  the  territories 
as  a  sine  qua  non.  Because  Douglas  could  not  agree 
to  this  suicidal  proposition,  they  seceded  from  the 
Convention  in  which  he  had  the  majority,  and  held 
one  of  their  own,  in  which  they  nominated  John  C. 
Breckenridge  for  President. 

We  see  how  the  demands  of  the  slave-power  had 
steadily  increased.  At  first  the  slaveholders  admit- 
ted that  slavery  was  bad  and  wrong,  but  they  believed 
it  would  be  gradually  abolished.  That  was  the  doc- 
trine held  by  Jefferson  and  the  Revolutionary  Fathers. 
Then  they  said  that  slavery  must  be  maintained  for 
the  present  wherever  it  exists,  but  ought  not  to  be 
extended  to  the  territories.  That  was  the  view  held 
at  the  time  of  the  Dane  ordinance.  It  excluded 
slavery  from  all  territory  north  of  the  Ohio.  Next, 
the  slaveholders  demanded  that  slavery  should  share 
the  territories,  equally  with  freedom.  That  was  the 
ground  taken  in  1820,  at  the  time  of  the  Missouri 
Compromise.  Then  they  maintained  that  slavery 
should  not  be  shut  out  of  any  of  the  territories,  but 
the  question  should  be  decided  by  the  people  them- 
selves. That  was  the  ground  taken  at  the  time  of  the 
passage  of  the  Kansas-Nebraska  bill,  under  the  lead 
of  Douglas.  Finally,  the  slaveholders  declared  that 
slavery   was   right,   and   in    accordance   with'  Chris- 


ANTI-SLA  VER  Y  DA  YS.  x  jg 

tianity ;  that  it  was  the  only  foundation  of  freedom 
and  of  the  Republic ;  that  it  must  therefore  be  pro- 
tected by  law,  not  only  in  the  Slave  States,  but  in 
every  part  of  the  country. 

When  it  became  evident  that  there  was  danger  of 
Southern  Secession,  there  was  for  a  time  no  little 
probability  that  for  the  sake  of  union,  these  last 
demands  would  also  be  granted  to  them.  There  was 
danger  that  more  concessions  would  be  offered  to 
induce  them  to  remain,  and  that  the  conscience  of 
the  North  would  submit  altogether  to  their  claims. 
Horace  Greeley  says,  in  his  history,  that  "  those 
who  had  reduced  servility  to  a  science,  demanded 
that  the  North  should  make  new  concessions  and 
prostrations  and  abasements. 

The  New  York  Herald  declared  that  the  South  had 
the  right  to  secede,  and  that  New  York  City,  New 
Jersey,  and  probably  Connecticut  would  go  too.  The 
New  York  Tribune  declared  that  journal  would  resist 
all  coercive  attempts  to  keep  the  South  in  the  Union  ; 
for  the  right  to  secede,  though  a  revolutionary  right, 
was  a  real  one.  The  ground  was  taken  by  a  great 
many  anti-slavery  men,  who  would  have  preferred 
to  have  the  South  become  an  independent  State, 
rather  than  have  more  concessions  made  to  them. 
This  was  the  opinion  which  I  myself  expressed  in  the 
pamphlet  which  I  published  at  the  time,  called  "  Se- 
cession, Concession,  or  Self-Possession.'' 


1 80  ANTI-SLA  VER  Y  DA  VS. 

The  truth  was  that  no  one  then  knew  the  amount 
of  patriotism  in  the  heart  of  the  northern  people. 
When  the  New  York  Herald  said  that  the  City  of 
New  York  would  go  with  the  seceders,  it  did  not 
seem  such  a  very  improbable  statement.  The  busi- 
ness of  New  York  was  largely  with  the  South.  The 
city  was  in  the  hands  of  the  Democratic  party.  The 
negro  was  hated  there  by  the  rabble.  Anti- slavery 
had  scarcely  obtained  a  foothold  with  the  mass  of  the 
people.  The  events  which  were  to  follow  the  attack 
on  Fort  Sumter ;  the  great  uprising  of  the  North ; 
the  tide  of  patriotic  devotion  which  would  sweep  over 
every  Northern  State  and  city,  silencing  all  opposition 
and  making  disunion  odious,  was  all  hidden  alike  from 
friends  and  foes.  The  slave-power  hoped  for  an  easy 
and  unresisted  triumph.  The  friends  of  human  lib- 
erty apprehended  that  to  prevent  secession  the  North 
would  give  up  the  last  defences  of  freedom,  justice 
and  humanity. 

If  the  South  had  seceded  peacefully;  if  it  had  not 
attacked  our  forts  and  troops,  but  had  simply  taken  a 
negative  position  towards  the  United  States,  refusing 
to  send  members  to  Congress,  I  think  after  a  while 
we  should  have  been  obliged  to  allow  them  to  form  a 
separate  and  independent  state. .  Mr.  Seward  and  his 
friends  were  seeking  how  to  make  concessions.  He 
had  great  faith  in  compromises,  and  was  very  anxious 
that  something  should  be  done.     He  was  one  of  those 


ANTI-SLA  VER  Y  DAYS.  r8i 

who  believed  that  almost  anything  could  be  done  by 
skilful  management.  He  who  originated  the  phrase, 
u  Irrepressible  conflict,"  seemed  to  have  forgotten 
that  there  was  any  conflict  of  principles  which  must 
continue  its  course  regardless  of  politicians.  There 
was  a  great  meeting  held  in  Ohio,  in  December,  i860, 
for  pacifying  the  South,  at  which  resolutions  were 
passed  saying  that  anti-slavery  discussion  at  the 
North  should  be  frowned  down  ;  that  slavery  need 
not  be  excluded  from  the  territories  ;  and  that  no  one 
must  meddle  with  the  institutions  of  the  Slave  States. 

About  the  same  time  George  William  Curtis  hav- 
ing made  an  engagement  to  lecture  in  Philadelphia, 
on  the  "  Policy  of  Honesty,"  was  prevented  from 
speaking  on  the  ground  that  there  would  probably  be 
a  riot  if  he  did. 

Under  these  circumstances  was  the  36th  Congress 
assembled  in  December,  i860.  Buchanan  was  still 
President.  He  said  in  his  last  message  that  a  State 
could  not  be  coerced,  and  argued  that  he  had  no  right 
to  prevent  the  Slave  States  from  seceding.  He  had 
been  elected  President  for  the  purpose,  as  the  Con 
stitution  declared,  of  seeing  that  the  laws  should  be 
faithfully  executed,  and  he  declined  to  execute  them 
at  the  South.  Judge  Black,  Mr.  Buchanan's  Attor- 
ney-General, argued  to  the  same  effect.  He  asserted 
the  impotence  of  the  United  States  to  maintain  its 
own  existence. 


!82  ANTI-SLA  VER  Y  DA  YS. 

Congress  appointed  a  committee  to  see  how  these 
seceders  could  be  conciliated ;  but  they  did  not  wish 
to  be  conciliated.  They  were  in  earnest  in  their  con- 
viction that  their  safety  was  in  secession,  and  that 
only  by  a  dissolution  of  the  Union,  and  the  formation 
of  a  Southern  Confederacy,  could  the  system  of  chat- 
tel slavery  be  maintained. 

Mr.  Iverson,  of  Georgia,  said,  "  they  meant  to  se- 
cede, and  nothing  Congress  could  do  would  prevent 
them.  There  would  be  no  war."  He  compared 
Northerners  to  a  "  switched  dog.  A  Southern  Con- 
federacy would  soon  be  formed,  and  would  be  the 
most  successful  government  in  the  world,  able  to  re- 
sist any  force." 

Mr,  John  J.  Crittenden,  of  Kentucky,  proposed  a 
series  of  resolutions  virtually  surrendering  to  the 
slaveholders  all  they  had  ever  asked  for. 

Mr.  Clark,  of  Rhode  Island,  offered  a  resolution  to 
the  effect  that  no  compromise  or  concession  was  nec- 
essary, and  that  the  Constitution  as  it  stood  was  suffi- 
cient, and  ought  to  be  enforced. 

In  a  committee  of  thirteen,  appointed  to  see  what 
could  be  done  to  prevent  secession,  Mr.  Seward  moved 
the  following  resolution :  "  No  amendment  shall  be 
made  to  the  Constitution  which  will  give  Congress 
power  over  slavery  in  the  States." 

When,  therefore,  we  read  the  history  of  these  few 
months  from  the  election  of  Lincoln  to  the  assault  on 


ANTI-SLA  VER  V  DA  YS. 


:83 


Fort  Sumter,  we  shall  see  that  the  great  danger  of 
the  hour  was  that  the  North,  for  the  sake  of  peace, 
would  yield  up  everything  to  slavery,  and  then  call 
this  also  a  compromise. 

Governor  Seymour,  of  New  York,  said,  at  an  im- 
mense Democratic  convention  at  Albany  :  "  The  only 
question  is,  shall  we  have  a  compromise  after  a  war, 
or  without  a  war  ?  " 

A  peace  conference  was  called  and  held  in  Wash- 
ington and  adopted  a  series  of  resolutions,  which, 
however,  was  voted  down  in  the  United  States 
Senate. 

The  compromise  of  1850  having  proved  to  be  a 
wall  so  feebly  built  that  it  had  already  fallen  down,  it 
was  now  proposed  to  daub  it  with  a  little  more  un- 
tempered  mortar.  This,  as  Lowell  said,  was  attempt- 
ing "  to  coax  an  earthquake  with  a  bun." 

The  secession  of  the  Southern  States  then  began  : 


South  Carolina,  seceded  Dec.  20,  i860. 


Georgia, 

Mississippi, 

Florida, 

Louisiana, 

Texas, 

North  Carolina, 

Tennessee, 

Virginia, 


Jan.    19,  1861 

Jan.      7,  " 

Jan.    10,  " 

Jan.   25,  " 

Feb.     1,  " 

May  21,  " 

June  26,  " 

Apr.   17,  " 


1 84  ANTI-SLA  VER  Y  DA  VS. 

Kentucky  tried  to  secede,  but  failed,  Maryland  and 
and  Missouri  also  remained  in  the  Union,  though 
containing  a  large  number  in  full  sympathy  with  se- 
cession. 

The  Confederate  Government  was  formed,  by  the 
choice  of  Jefferson  Davis  as  President,  February  9, 
1861. 

Without  waiting  for  any  action  at  the  North,  the 
United  States  forts,  thirty  in  all,  were  seized  by  the 
Confederates. 

Fort  Moultrie  and  Castle  Pinckney,  South  Carolina, 
on  December,  i860. 

Fort  Sumter  surrendered  April  13,  1861. 

Fort  Pulaski,  Mount  Jackson  and  the  United  States 
Arsenal,  in  Georgia,  were  seized  January,  1861. 

The  Arsenal  at  Augusta  followed. 

The  Florida  Navy  Yards  and  three  forts  in  Florida 
were  seized  in  January,  1861. 

Fort  Morgan  in  Alabama  and  the  Mount  Vernon 
Arsenal  also  fell. 

Immense  quantities  of  arms,  ammunition,  etc.,  were 
seized  by  the  Confederacy,  in  all  the  Southern  States. 
Thirty  forts,  with  3000  guns,  thus  fell  into  iheir 
hands. 

But  when  the  first  gun  was  fired  at  Fort  Sumter  a 
wonderful  result  took  place  at  the  North  ;  a  result 
which  no  one  had  foreseen.  We  ourselves,  in  the 
North,  did  not  know  what  a  love  for  the  country 


ANTI-SLA  VER  V  DA  VS.  1 85 

there  was  in  the  hearts  of  the  people.  The  Southern 
people  had  not  the  remotest  idea  that  the  North 
would  attempt  to  resist  them.  But  when  Fort  Sumter 
was  attacked,  a  flame  of  fire  seemed  run  through  the 
whole  North,  and  all  parties  were  united  to  resist  this 
assault  on  the  national  flag.  There  was  no  more 
talk  of  any  compromises  with  the  South.  Lincoln 
issued  a  proclamation  calling  for  75,000  troops,  and 
more  troops  were  offered  than  the  Government  was 
willing  to  accept  ;  and  so  the  civil  war  began.  A 
month  before  that  gun  was  fired  at  Sumter  there  were 
many  parts  of  New  York  where  it  would  have  been 
dangerous  for  any  anti-secession  man  to  express  his 
sentiments  ;  the  next  day  after,  it  would  have  been 
dangerous  for  anybody  to  have  said  a  word  in  favor  of 
secession,  even  in  the  worst  parts  of  that  city. 

Who  that  lived  in  that  time  can  ever  forget  those 
memorable  days  ?  Who  can  forget  the  immense  ex- 
citements, the  expectations,  the  disappointments,  the 
trials,  the  great  sorrows,  the  tragedies,  the  hopes  and 
fears,  the  struggles,  the  devotion,  the  numerous  forms 
of  generous  effort  which  were  displayed  at  the  North  ? 
Who  that  lived  in  such  hours  can  forget  what  it  is  to 
live  in  a  nation  the  whole  heart  and  soul  of  which  are 
devoted  to  generous  and  patriotic  purposes,  among 
men  and  women  who  are  fogetting  private  interests, 
money-making,  everything  but  saving  the  country  ? 

No  doubt  there  were  people  who  made  money  out 


1 86  ANTI-SLA  VER  Y. 

of  the  war,  and  who  were  selfish,  but  that  was  not  the 
spirit  of  the  land.  The  feeling  of  most  Northern 
men  was  that  the  Union  must  be  saved  at  all  hazards 
and  at  every  sacrifice.  They  said,  "  if  the  Union  goes, 
everything  goes.  It  will  be  ruin  to  every  interest- 
We  may  as  well  sacrifice  all  we  have  to  save  the 
country,  for  unless  it  is  preserved,  nothing  we  have 
will  be  of  any  value."  This  conviction  was  expressed 
by  Judge  Rockwood  Hoar,  who  said  to  me  at  the  be- 
ginning of  the  contest :  "  I  suppose  that  the  people 
of  the  Northern  States  have  made  up  their  minds 
that  they  will  not  give  up  a  single  shovelful  of  sand 
from  the  southern  cape  of  Florida,  nor  a  single  para- 
lytic negro  from  the  rice-swamps  of  South  Carolina." 


ANTI-SLA  VER  Y  DA  VS.  jSj 


CHAPTER  VII. 

THE   CIVIL   WAR  AND   ITS   CONSEQUENCES. 

"  The  roll  of  drums  and  the  bugle's  wailing, 
Vex  the  air  of  our  vales  no  more ; 
The  spear  is  beaten  to  hooks  of  pruning, 
The  share  is  the  sword  the  soldier  wore. 

"  Sing  soft,  sing  low,  our  lowland  river, 
Under  thy  banks  of  laurel  bloom, 
Softly  and  sweet,  as  the  hour  becometh, 
Sing  us  the  songs  of  peace  and  home." 

Whitttee. 

In  this  story  of  the  anti-slavery  conflict,  we  have  not 
been  able  to  keep  to  any  strict  chronological  order, 
but  have  preferred  to  hold  mainly  the  succession  of 
subjects.  We,  therefore,  have  now  to  go  back  to  the 
time  before  the  rebellion,  and  examine  some  points  of 
interest  which  preceded  it. 

We  must  first  speak  of  Abraham  Lincoln,  the  man 
providentially  raised  up  to  be  the  saviour  of  the  Union 
and  the  emancipator  of  the  slaves.  No  such  place  has 
been  occupied  in  modern  history  as  he  was  called  to 
fill.  Singularly  fitted  by  his  character  and  experience 
for  his  great  work,  his  whole  life  seemed  to  have  been 
a  preparation  for  it.     We  needed  a  man  in  that  trying 


I  £  8  ANTI-SLA  VER  Y  DA  YS. 

hour  who  should  be  prudent  but  decided,  cautious  but 
firm — a  man  of  supreme  good  sense  ;  a  conscientious 
man,  but  no  enthusiast  or  fanatic.  We  needed  one 
around  whom  the  whole  loyal  people  could  unite; 
therefore,  one  against  whom  no  prejudices  existed, 
and  not  an  extreme  partisan  of  any  creed.  The  North- 
ern people  were  broken  into  many  parties.  There 
was  New  England,  strongly  anti-slavery  and  Republi- 
can ;  the  Middle  States  leaning  to  the  Democratic 
party,  and  filled  with  men  who  hated  abolition  ;  the 
Border  States  just  on  the  verge  of  secession,  and  only 
to  be  kept  in  the  Union  by  a  firm,  yet  kind,  hand. 
There  were  Douglas  men,  Bell  and  Everett  men,  Web- 
ster Whigs  ;  and  men  of  influence  like  Vallandigham, 
ex-President  Pierce  and  Fernando  Wood,  whose  sym- 
pathies were  with  the  rebels.  An  anti-slavery  man* 
would  have  made  a  large  part  of  the  Union  men  in- 
different and  neutral.  An  old-fashioned  Whig  would 
have  killed  the  enthusiasm  of  the  anti-slavery  North, 
Although  at  the  beginning  of  the  war,  and  for  a  long 
time  after  the  beginning,no  steps  were  taken  bythe  Gov- 
ernment toward  the  emancipation  of  the  slaves,  though 
General  Fremont's  proclamation  of  emancipation  in 
Missouri  was  modified  by  the  President  so  as  to  make 
it  inoperative,  and  though  General  Hunter's  emanci- 
pation order  in  the  South  was  also  annulled  by  Lin- 
coln, yet  the  anti-slavery  men,  though  grieved,  still  ad- 
hered to  him.     They  knew  that  he  was  an  enemy  to 


ANTI-SLA  VER  Y  DA  YS.  1 89 

slavery,  and  they  believed  that  the  progress  of  events 
would  certainly  bring  the  end  of  that  institution 
through  his  means.  They,  as  well  as  Lincoln,  knew 
how  to  "bide  their  time."  Lincoln  was  patient, 
hopeful,  determined,  wise.  He  was  one  of  the  people, 
and  knew  them  well.  He  had  that  instinct  of  human- 
ity which  alone  enables  a  man  to  measure  public  sen- 
timent. Trained  in  poverty  and  hardship,  he  was  not 
easily  discouraged  by  difficulties.  With  a  heart  ten- 
der as  that  of  a  woman,  he  had  a  cool,  calm  brain.  At 
the  root  of  all  was  "the  strong-siding  champion,  con- 
science." Whatever  might  happen,  in  evil  report  or 
good  report,  he  was  determined  to  do  his  duty,  and  he 
did  it  to  the  end.  A  sad  man,  on  whom  the  burden 
of  responsibility  weighed  heavily,  his  quick,  rugged 
humor  furnished  him  a  little  distraction  and  relief. 

Some  hitherto  unpublished  anecdotes  of  Lincoln's 
early  life  in  Springfield, throwing  light  on  his  character, 
were  communicated,  to  me  by  one  of  my  old  Kentucky 
friends,  who  was  also  one  of  the  oldest  friends  of  Lin- 
coln. I  have  spoken  before  of  Judge  Speed,  the  Ken- 
tucky farmer,  who,  though  a  slaveholder,  was  an  utter 
unbeliever  in  slavery,  and  whose  slaves  were  set  free 
by  his  children  at  his  death.  One  of  his  sons,  named 
Joshua,  went,  while  quite  young,  to  Springfield,  Illi- 
nois, and  there  kept  a  country  shop.  Abraham  Lin- 
coln, who  had  recently  opened  his  lawyer's  office  in 
the  town,  came  into  the  store  one  day,  and  said,  '  Mr. 


190 


ANTIS'LA  VERY  DA  YS. 


Speed,  I  have  put  a  bedstead  in  my  back  office,  and  now 
I  want  the  furniture  of  the  bed — a  mattrass,  pillows, 
blankets  and  sheets.  I  cannot  pay  you  now,  but  sup- 
pose I  can  when  the  next  term  of  court  is  held." 
Speed,  who  knew  him  somewhat,  told  him  the  price, 
but  added,  "Mr.  Lincoln,  I  have  a  large  room  and  a 
large  bed  above  my  shop  ;  if  y  ou  like,  you  can  come 
and  stay  there  with  me."  "  How  do  I  get  there  ? " 
asked  Lincoln ;  and  mounting  the  staircase,  with  his 
saddlebags,  deposited  them  in  the  corner  of  the  room, 
and  coming  down  again,  said,  "Mr.  Speed,  I  have 
moved  in." 

They  lived  together  thus  for  five  years,  and  became 
warm  friends.  When  Lincoln  was  President,  he  se- 
lected a  brother  of  Joshua,  James  Speed,  who  was  an 
excellent  lawyer,  and  also  possessing  the  fine  integrity 
of  the  family,  as  his  Attorney-General. 

I  spent  a  summer  afternoon  with  Joshua  Speed,  at 
his  late  residence  in  Kentucky,  and  he  told  me  many 
anecdotes  showing  some  of  the  early  traits  of  Lincoln's 
character.  During  all  the  time  he  knew  him,  he  said 
that  Lincoln  was  devoted  to  his  profession — conscien- 
tious, truthful,  honorable.  He  indulged  in  none  of  the 
dissipations,  still  less  in  the  vices,  all  too  common  in 
those  days.  He  did  not  drink,  and  was  temperate  in 
all  things.  Of  his  interest  in  the  law,  the  following  is 
an  illustration  : — "  He  once  was  retained  in  a  case  in 
which  the  question  at  issue  concerned  the  boundary  of 


ANTI-SLAVERY  DAYS,  i9i 

a  piece  of  land  on  the  prairie.  Now,  as  there  are  no 
trees  nor  stones  on  the  prairie,  the  surveyors  were  in 
the  habit  of  fixing  the  corners  of  the  lots  by  shovelling 
up  a  little  mound  of  earth.  But  it  seemed  that  the  prairie 
squirrel,  there  called  a  gopher,  built  a  somewhat  similar 
mour.d  over  his  house.  The  question  then  was 
whether,  in  this  particular  instance,  the  mound  at  the 
corner  had  been  put  up  by  the  surveyor  or  by  the 
gopher.  Lincoln  sent  to  New  York  to  get  books  on 
natural  history,  and  studied  in  them  the  habits  of  the 
little  animal.  When  the  trial  came,  he  went  into  court 
and  explained  to  the  judge  and  jury  the  difference  be- 
tween the  surveyor's  mound  and  that  raised  by  the 
gopher.  The  latter  being  anxious  for  the  comfort  of 
his  small  family  below,  was  careful  to  beat  down  the 
roof  firmly,  and  make  it  slope  up  to  a  point  in  the 
middle,  so  that  the  rain  might  run  off.  The  surveyor, 
less  anxious,  was  apt  to  leave  his  mound  with  a  flat  or 
hollow  top.  After  the  trial  was  over,  the  judge,  who 
happened  in  this  instance  to  be  Lincoln's  future  rival, 
Stephen  A.  Douglas,  went  to  Lincoln's  office,  and 
found  him,  with  his  books  of  natural  history,  still 
studying  the  habits  of  these  animals.  He  had  no  more 
practical  need  of  the  knowledge,  but  had  become  in- 
terested in  the  subject,  and  so  went  on  with  the  study. 
Judge  Douglas  and  Lincoln  spent  the  evening  over 
these  books,  little  thinking  of  the  future  time  when 
their  mutual  struggles  would  shake  the  country,  and 


x  n2  ANTI-SLA  VER  Y  DA  VS. 

make  one  of  them  the  President  of  the  United  States. 

Sunday  morning,  April  14th,  1861,  Fort  Sumter 
was  surrendered  by  Major  Anderson  to  the  chivalry 
of  South  Carolina.  Lincoln  had  then  been  President 
a  little  more  than  a  month.  On  the  15th  he  issued 
his  proclamation  calling  for  seventy-five  thousand 
troops  to  enforce  the  laws  in  the  States  in  insur- 
rection. The  war  then  began,  which  ended  four 
years  after  by  the  surrender  of  Lee's  army,  April  9th, 
1865. 

At  first  everything  in  this  war  seemed  to  go  against 
the  North.  The  South  had  every  advantage.  They 
had  secured  the  munitions  of  war,  and  had  dispersed 
the  U,  S.  troops  to  the  farthest  parts  of  the  west  and 
southwest.  The  Union  had  no  navy,  no  army,  and 
had  an  empty  treasury.  The  Government  had  to  bor- 
row of  the  New  York  banks  a  few  million  dollars  to 
commence  operations.  The  Southerners  had  been 
brought  up  to  the  use  of  weapons  ;  the  Northerners 
had  not.  The  Southern  men  were  quite  accustomed  to 
fight ;  they  lived  in  a  permanent  condition  of  war,  and 
therefore  it  was  natural  enough,  though  it  seemed  mel- 
ancholy, that  we  should  be  defeated  in  our  first 
battles.  Those  were  very  gloomy  times  for  Union 
men.  We  looked  abroad  for  sympathy,  but  we  did 
not  find  it.  We  had  hoped  that  the  influence  of  Eng- 
land would  be  on  our  side,  as  it  had  made  such  strong 
anti-slavery  professions,  but  the  leading  men  there 


ANTI-SLA  VER  Y  DA  YS.  x  93 

were  all  opposed  to  us.  The  aristocracy,  the  army  and 
navy,  the  church  and  literary  men,  all  took  sides  with 
the  slaveholders,  and  there  were  only  on  our  side  a  few 
men  like  John  Bright,  Richard  Cobden,  Goldwin 
Smith,  J.  Stuart  Mill,  and  the  laboring  class  among 
the  people.  With  that  instinct,  deeper  than  reason 
and  larger  than  knowledge,  that  led  the  common  people 
to  hear  Christ  gladly,  while  the  wise  and  prudent  re- 
fused to  listen  to  him,  the  common  laborers  in  the 
mills  of  Lancashire,  the  manufacturing  classes,  though 
depending  on  cotton  for  their  daily  bread,  neverthe- 
less refused  to  echo  the  public  sentiment  against  the 
Union.  They  stood  by  it  to  the  last,  even  though 
many  were  on  the  point  of  starvation  in  consequence 
of  their  position. 

We  sent  to  England  as  our  ambassador,  a  man  who 
was  singularly  well-fitted  to  be  our  representative,  Mr. 
Charles  Francis  Adams.  He  was  calm,  cool,  prudent, 
wise,  very  determined,  very  inflexible — like  his  father 
before  him.  He  had  a  very  hard  time  living  in  the 
midst  of  all  this  sentiment  in  favor  of  the  Confederacy, 
but  he  held  his  own  against  it.  When  Lord  Russell 
refused  to  stop  the  building  of  rams  for  the  Confeder- 
ates, Mr.  Adams  simply  said,  "  Of  course,  your  lord- 
ship is  aware  that  this  is  war."  Orders  were  then 
given  by  Lord  Russell  to  suspend  the  building  of  these 
Confederate  rams.  Lord  Russell  had  said  that  "  Jef- 
ferson Davis  had  created  a  nation."     Most  English- 


1 94  ANTI-S-LA  VER  V  DA  VS. 

men  were  quite  certain  that  the  North  could  never 
conquer  the  South.  They  called  it  a  war  of  ambition 
on  the  part  of  the  North,  and  said  we  ought  to  let  the 
South  go.  The  English  aristocracy,  literary  men  and 
merchants  wished  to  see  our  nation  divided  and  weak- 
ened. Their  motive  was,  that  they  found  the  United 
States  growing  into  too  powerful  a  nation ;  it  was  as 
suming  altogether  too  much  importance,  and  it  would 
be  extremely  satisfactory  to  have  it  broken  into  two 
or  three  divisions.  For  all  this  there  came  the  judg- 
ment, when  England  was  not  only  obliged  to  pay  for 
the  destruction  caused  by  these  Confederate  cruisers 
that  she  had  allowed  to  be  built  in  her  ports  to  destroy 
American  shipping,  but  to  admit  that  she  had  done 
wrong  in  letting  them  go. 

When  the  great  uprising  of  the  Northern  people 
came,  there  was  seen  in  the  Northern  States  c<  the 
might  that  slumbers  in  a  freeman's  arm."  The  Whig 
party,  led  by  such  men  as  Webster  and  Clay,  and  the 
Democrats  of  the  North  under  their  own  great  leaders, 
had  been  taught  to  believe  in  the  importance  of  the 
Union  and  the  Constitution.  And  the  Republican 
party,  which  had  grown  up  under  the  teaching  of  the 
political  and  non-political  sections  of  their  anti-slavery 
teachers,  had  been  taught  to  believe  that  the  great 
danger  to  the  country,  was  from  slavery.  When 
secession  came  it  struck  a  blow  at  both  these  great 
sentiments.     It  attacked  the  national  union,  and  it 


ANTI-SLA VER Y  DAYS.  ^ 

attacked  it  in  behalf  of  slavery  and  its  extension.  It 
thus  struck  a  blow  at  the  same  time  at  the  Union 
sentiment  and  the  anti-slavery  sentiment,  and  the 
Northern  States  united  as  one  man  against  seces^ 
sion 

Immense  armies  were  speedily  improvised.  Fifty 
days  after  the  battle  of  Bull  Run,  when  the  army  of 
the  Potomac  had  been  apparently  demoralized,  another 
army,  of  a  hundred  thousand  men  was  collected  in 
Washington,  under  McClellan,  and  were  organized  by 
him  into  a  highly  disciplined  body  of  troops.  A 
blockade  of  the  Southern  States  was  declared.  Abroad 
this  was  thought  to  be  utterly  impracticable,  but  the 
Southern  coast  for  fifteen  hundred  miles  was  soon 
watched  and  guarded.  It  is  true  that  many  blockade 
runners  got  through,  but  our  blockade  was  admitted 
to  be,  on  the  whole  efficient. 

There  had  never  been  in  this  country  any  truly 
organized  banking  system.  Salmon  P.  Chase,  Secre- 
tary of  the  Treasury,  has  the  credit  of  having  first 
established  the  National  banking  system,  which  cer- 
tainly has  proved  from  that  day  to  this  a  vastly  better 
one  than  any  that  had  before  existed  in  this  country. 
Down  to  that  time,  exchange  was  to  be  paid  on  the 
notes  of  one  state  in  another,  and  there  were  continual 
failures  of  the  state  banks  all  over  the  country.  But 
our  new  banks  were  even  better  than  the  old  United 
States  Bank  under  Nicholas  Biddle. 


1 9  6  ANTI-SLA  VER  Y  DA  VS. 

The  arsenals  in  the  country  were  soon  at  work 
turning  out  thousands  of  guns  and  rifles  every  day. 

And  very  soon,  by  the  foresight  and  eloquence  of 
Henry  W.  Bellows,  the  Sanitary  Commission  was  in 
full  operation.  This  was  a  new  gift  to  mankind 
showing  how  the  horrors  of  war  could  be  soothed  and 
its  evils  be  alleviated  by  the  power  of  kind,  generous* 
wise  and  faithful  care  on  the  part  of  those  at  home 
for  those  who  were  at  the  front.  The  best  women  of 
the  land  joined  the  army  as  nurses.  They  were  to  be 
found  in  all  the  hospitals  ;  at  work,  everywhere,  on 
the  field,  and  at  home  providing  comforts  for  the 
soldiers.  I  recollect,  one  Sunday,  when  news  came 
that  there  had  been  a  battle,  and  that  a  quantity  of 
goods  were  wanted  for  the  comfort  of  the  soldiers.  It 
was  advertised  that  they  might  be  sent  to  a  place 
opposite  the  Tremont  House,  in  Boston.  The  whole 
of  that  sidewalk,  on  Sunday  afternoon  was  filled  with 
boxes  from  many  towns  around,  sent  in  for  that  pur- 
pose. 

After  two  or  three  years  the  largest,  best  disciplined, 
best  commanded  army  the  world  has  ever  seen  had 
been  organized,  composed  of  "  those  bayonets  which 
could  not  only  fight  but  also  think."  Our  generals 
were  at  first  inexperienced,  but  they  became  wise  and 
skilful,  until  we  had  such  men  as  Grant,  Sherman, 
Sheridan,  Thomas,  Burnside,  Hooker,  and  Meade  at 
the  head  of  our  armies. 


A  N'T/SLA  VER  Y  DA  7S.  197 

Meantime  the  nation  was  ready  to  give  all,  bear  all 
and  do  all.  Every  prophecy  of  evil  made  concerning 
it  failed.  It  had  been  said  that  no  nation  could  carry 
on  a  civil  war  and  at  the  same  time  allow  free  speech 
and  a  free  press.  We  did  both.  The  newspapers  at 
the  North  which  were  favorable  to  the  Confederates 
continued  to  be  printed,  and  were  allowed  to  say  what 
they  thought.  Meetings  were  held  to  denounce  the 
war,  conventions  were  called  to  oppose  the  war  and 
the  people  who  sat  in  them  were  allowed  full  freedom 
to  speak.  It  was  said  that  when  Mason  and  Slidell 
were  taken  and  there  was  such  an  outbreak  of  glad 
enthusiasm  at  the  North,  that  the  American  people 
would  never  consent  to  their  being  given  up  to  Eng- 
land. When  the  nation  found  that  this  was  the 
necessary  thing  to  do,  no  opposition  was  made  to  it 
anywhere,  It  took  place  in  silence.  It  was  said  that 
a  free  election  of  a  President  was  not  possible  in  the 
midst  of  such  a  war  ;  but  when  Lincoln's  four  years 
of  service  expired,  another  election  took  place,  which 
was  carried  through  as  though  it  had  been  in  the 
midst  of  profound  peace. 

It  was  said  that  a  nation  spending  two  million  dol- 
lars a  day  in  war  expenses  would  soon  become  a 
bankrupt.  At  one  time  the  paper  money  of  the 
United  States  had  depreciated  immensely  ;  neverthe- 
less we  were  never  bankrupt.  We  never  repudiated 
our  debts.     It  was  said  that  if  the  South  was  con- 


198 


ANTI-SLA  VERY  DA  VS. 


quered  in  the  field,  it  would  carry  on  a  perpetual 
guerrilla  warfare.  But  when  Lee  and  Johnson  sur- 
rendered, the  war  came  to  an  end.  It  was  said  that 
reconstruction  would  be  impossible  ;  that  the  South- 
ern States  were  so  hostile  to  the  North  that  they 
would  never  come  back  ;  but  we  very  soon  saw  them 
willingly  taking  their  places  in  the  Union,  consenting 
/to  alter  their  Constitutions  to  abolish  slavery.  We 
1  have  seen  a  new  prosperity,  a  new  contentment  come 
I  over  the  whole  land.  It  was  said  that  this  enormous 
debt  could  never  be  paid  off,  but  about  half  of  it  has 
already  been  paid.  It  was  said  that  the  immense 
Northern  army  would  never  consent  to  be  disbanded, 
but  would  reduce  the  country  under  military  control ; 
but  as  soon  as  the  war  was  over  the  army  melted 
away  and  disappeared ;  glad  to  return  to  private  life 
and  to  take  up  its  old  occupations.  It  was  said  that 
if  the  negroes  were  emancipated,  they  would  not 
work,  but  would  gradually  die  out ;  but  at  present  the 
fear  expressed  is  that  they  are  increasing  so  rapidly 
that  they  will  finally  drive  out  the  white  people  from 
the  Southern  States. 

What  gave  this  power  to  the  people  of  the  Union  ? 
Free  schools,  free  churches,  a  free  press,  popular  in- 
stitutions. The  people  of  the  country  knew  that  it 
was  their  country  ;  that  it  belonged  to  them  ;  that 
they  had  a  right  to  make  of  it  anything  they  chose, 
to  do  anything  they  wished  with  it.     They  felt  the 


ANTI-SLA  VER  Y  DA  VS.  199 

immense  benefit  rendered  to  them  by  these  free  in- 
stitutions. They  had  been  educated  by  free  schools 
to  understand  these  principles  ;  they  had  been  taught 
in  free  churches  to  make  sacrifices  for  the  general 
good.  They  knew  that  the  country  was  their  com- 
mon country  ;  and  that  it  must  be  defended  and  pre- 
served for  the  common  welfare. 

There  were  many  providential  circumstances  to  be 
noticed  in  those  times.  A  friend  of  mine  once  said 
to  me  during  the  war,  "  Mr.  Clarke,  it  does  not  now 
require  any  faith  to  see  the  presence  of  a  divine  Prov- 
idence in  our  affairs  ;  it  only  requires  common 
sense." 

It  was  a  providential  thing  that  we  had  such  a  man 
as  Abraham  Lincoln  for  President.  If  we  had  had  a 
man  who  was  more  satisfactory  to  the  abolitionist 
and  anti-slavery  party,  he  would  not  have  united  the 
whole  nation.  At  any  rate  he  would  not  have  in- 
duced the  Border  States  to  remain  in  the  Union.  On 
the  other  hand,  if  we  had  had  a  man  opposed  to  the 
anti-slavery  movement,  neither  would  he  have  united 
the  nation.  As  it  was,  we  had  a  man  who  in  heart 
and  conviction  was  opposed  to  slavery,  but  whose 
main  object  was  to  save  the  Union.  He  said  on  one 
occasion,  "  If  the  Union  can  be  best  saved  by  eman- 
cipating all  the  slaves,  I  am  willing  to  emancipate 
them  all.  If  it  can  be  best  saved  by  emancipating  a 
part,  I  am  ready  to  emancipate  a  part.     And  if  it  can 


200  ANTI-SLA  VER  Y  DA  VS. 

be  best  saved  by  not  emancipating  any,  I  will  emanci- 
pate none."  He  did  not  go  too  fast,  and  yet  he  kept 
moving  on.  He  knew  the  people.  Every  great  states- 
man has  been  able  to  divine  what  the  people  need 
and  want.  I  remember  hearing  Gov.  Andrew  tell  a 
story  of  Andrew  Jackson.  He  was  advised  that  some 
measure  which  he  favored  was  not  Democratic.  "  I 
don't  want  any  one  to  tell  me  what  is  Democratic," 
he  cried  ;  "  if  I  want  to  know  what  is  Democratic,  I 
ask  old  Andrew  Jackson ;  he  knows  what  is  Demo- 
cratic if  no  one  else  does.  He  is  a  Democrat  if  any 
one  is." 

Mr.  Lincoln  had  no  military  knowledge.  Jefferson 
Davis  was  an  educated  soldier.  Mr.  Lincoln  was  at 
first  obliged  to  put  himself  entirely  in  the  hands  of 
General  Scott  and  other  generals,  and  do  as  they 
said.  When  Gen.  McClellan  still  lingered  so  long 
after  the  army  had  been  prepared,  and  found  it  so 
difficult  to  move  forward,  Mr.  Lincoln  said  to  one  of 
his  friends,  "  I  wonder  whether  McClellan  means  to 
do  anything.  If  not  I  should  like  to  borrow  the  army 
of  him  for  a  week  or  two."  He  took  an  immense  in- 
terest in  everything  connected  with  the  war,  and  he 
had  that  faculty  which  enables  a  man  to  make  use  of 
men  different  from  himself.  He  could  see  the  good 
in  men  of  all  sorts  ;  in  Mr.  Seward,  for  example,  who 
was  a  politician ;  in  Sumner,  a  scholar  and  thinker. 
They  both  were  great  friends  of  Lincoln.     He  was 


ANTf-SLA  YAK  y  DAYS.  201 

also  very  fond  of  Stanton,  who  opposed  Lincoln  in 
almost  everything.  He  made  use  of  them  all  for  the 
purposes  of  the  national  life. 

So  though  Lincoln  was  thought  to  be  slow  at  first, 
and  though  he  was  distrusted  by  many,  he  grew  in 
the  love  and  esteem  of  the  whole  nation,  and  also  in 
real  strength  and  power.  At  last  he  felt  himself  able 
to  decide  for  himself,  on  the  measures  needed  at  the 
hour,  forming  his  own  conclusions,  and  acting  deci- 
dedly upon  them.  No  one  ever  could  take  more  to 
heart  than  Lincoln  did  the  terrible  burdens  of  the 
war.  Some  of  our  generals  seemed  to  act  as  though 
they  were  going  through  a  rou-tme  and  needed  not  to 
trouble  themselves  much  about  their  work.  Not  so 
with  Lincoln.  On  him  this  awful  struggle  rested  as 
a  dreadful  weight,  and  he  would  have  been  crushed 
but  for  three  things.  He  had  faith  in  the  justice  of 
God.  He  was  a  profoundly  religious  man  at  heart, 
though  without  any  religious  formality  or  cant.  He 
had  a  strong  faith  also  in  free  institutions,  and  was 
sure  that  they  must  ultimately  triumph.  Then  he 
had  a  sense  of  humor  and  social  sympathy  which  were 
often  a  help  to  him  in  the  hours  of  greatest  calamity. 
When  he  told  his  Cabinet  that  he  had  decided  on 
issuing  the  Proclamation  of  Emancipation,  he  said 
that  he  had  been  waiting  for  the  right  time  to  come, 
and  he  was  sure  that  the  time  had  arrived.  He  had 
watched  the  sentiment  of  the  people,  and  he  was  sat' 


2  02  A NTI-SLA  VER  Y  DA  VS. 

isfied  that  the  whole  nation  was  prepared  for  this  step. 
Then  he  added  in  a  low  voice,  heard  only  by  one 
person,  "  When  Lee  was  driven  out  of  Maryland  I 
promised  my  God  that  I  would  abolish  slavery." 

When  Gen.  McClellan's  army  was  defeated  in  the 
Peninsula,  Lincoln  said  that  he  was  about  as  incon- 
solable as  any  man  could  be  and  live. 

Lincoln's  humanity  and  sympathy  were  very  great. 
There  was  a  story  told  me  by  Mr.  James  Speed,  his 
attorney-general,  to  this  effect.  One  day  when  he 
met  Mr.  Lincoln  to  consult  him  on  some  point,  the 
officer  on  guard  came  in  and  said,  "  Your  excellency, 
there  is  a  poor  woman  outside  crying.  She  has  been 
there  two  or  three  days,  asking  if  she  cannot  see  you/' 
"  Let  her  come  in,"  said  Lincoln.  She  came  in  and 
said,  "Oh,  Mr.  President,  I  have  three  sons  in  the 
army.  I  am  a  widow.  I  had  one  son  at  home,  and 
now  he  is  dead.  Won't  you  lend  me  one  of  my  sons- 
to  carry  on  my  farm  and  help  support  me."  "  Well," 
said  Lincoln,  <4 1  have  three  children;  it  does  seem  as 
though  you  ought  to  have  one.  Where  is  your  son  ?" 
"  Oh,  sir,  he  is  with  the  army  at  Fredericksburg." 
"  What  is  his  name,  and  with  what  command  is  he  ? " 
When  he  had  learned  these  facts  he  sat  down  and 
wrote  an  order  for  his  discharge.  She  blessed  him 
and  took  the  paper  and  was  going  out  when  Lincoln 
said,  where  are  you  going  ? "  "  Please,  sir,  I  am 
going   directly    to   Fredericksburg    to   get   my   son. 


ANTI-SLA  VER  Y  DA  VS.  2  03 

"  How  do  you  expect  to  get  through  the  lines  to  find 
him  ?  "  "  The  Lord  will  take  care  of  that,  so  long  as 
I  have  your  paper."  "  I  do  not  know,"  said  Lincoln, 
"  whether  it  is  necessary  to  trouble-the  Lord  about  it  ; 
I  can  attend  to  that  myself."  So  he  sat  down  and 
wrote  an  order  passing  her  through  the  lines  and 
directing  every  one  to  give  her  the  help  she  needed. 

A  gentleman  who  was  in  the  office  of  Secretary 
Stanton  told  me  that  when  any  soldier  had  committed 
an  offence  for  which  he  was  sentenced  to  death  by 
the  Court  Martial,  the  sentence  was  never  executed 
till  the  proceedings  of  the  Court  had  been  revised 
both  by  Stanton  and  Lincoln.  Then  it  almost  always 
happened  that  Lincoln  wished  to  commute,  and  Stan- 
ton to  execute  the  sentence.  Stanton  once  said, 
"  Mr.  President,  you  think  you  will  be  doing  an  act  of 
mercy  in  pardoning  this  man  "  (who  had  disobeyed 
orders,  deserted  in  battle,  or  committed  some  outrage 
on  peaceful  citizens),  "  it  is  not  mercy,  it  is  cruelty. 
For  every  such  rascal  pardoned,  a  hundred  good  and 
honest  soldiers  will  be  killed."  "  It  may  be  so,"  re- 
plied Lincoln  ;  "but  then  that  is  only  a  possibility,; 
but  if  I  let  this  man  be  shot,  it  will  be  a  certainty  that 
I  have  allowed  the  death  of  one  soldier." 

It  is  said  that  on  one  occasion,  when  it  was  thought 
that  it  was  absolutely  necessary  that  there  should  be 
a  new  Surgeon-General  appointed,  and  Dr.  Bellows 
was  asked  to  go  to  Washington  to  urge  the  appoint- 


204 


ANTISLA  VER  Y  DA  VS. 


ment  of  Dr.  Hammond,  he  went,  and  had  an  inter- 
view with  Lincoln,  whom  he  found  signing  papers. 

"  Go  on,"  said  Lincoln,  "  I  can  hear  you  while  I 
write."  So  Dr.  Bellows  made  his  plea  with  his  usual 
energy.  Lincoln  kept  signing  his  papers.  At  last, 
after  Bellows  had  got  through,  and  stopped,  Lincoln 
said,  "  I  like  to  hear  you  talk,  Doctor ;  but  I  rather 
think  Hammond  has  been  appointed,  at  least  a  week 
ago."  "  Is  that  so  ?  "  asked  Dr.  Bellows.  "  Yes,  that 
is  so  ;  but  I  thought  I  would  like  to  hear  your 
oration." 

He  was  a  sad-eyed,  earnest,  wise,  kind  man,  but 
this  fondness  for  fun  perhaps  saved  his  life  more  than 
once.  He  was  once  called  upon  to  address  a  crowd 
from  the  window  of  a  hotel.  He  was  tall,  and  his 
wife,  who  was  very  short,  was  standing  at  the  window 
with  him.  The  whole  speech  was  in  these  words : 
"  My  friends,  here  am  I,  and  here  is  Mrs.  Lincoln. 
That  is  the  long  and  the  short  of  the  whole  matter." 

The  best  description  that  has  ever  been  given  of 
him  was  that  of  James  Russell  Lowell,  in  his  Com- 
memoration Ode  at  Cambridge : 

Nature,  they  say,  doth  dote, 

And  cannot  make  a  man, 

Save  on  some  worn-out  plan, 
Repeating  us  by  rote. 
For  him  her  Old  World  moulds  aside  she  threw, 

And,  choosing  sweet  clay  from  the  breast 

Of  the  unexhausted  west, 
With  stuff  untainted  shaped  a  hero  new, 


ANTI-SLA  VER  Y  DA  VS.  2  05 

Wise,  zealous  in  the  strength  of  God,  and  true. 
How  beautiful  to  see 

Once  more,  a  shepherd  of  mankind,  indeed, 

Who  loved  his  charge,  but  never  loved  to  lead ; 
One  whose  meek  flock  the  people  joyed  to  be.  .  .  . 
They  knew  that  outward  grace  is  dust  ; 
They  could  not  choose,  but  trust 

In  that  sure-footed  mind's  unfaltering  skill, 

And  supple-tempered  will, 
That  bent,  like  perfect  steel,  to  spring  again  and  thrust. 
Great  captains,  with  their  guns  and  drums, 

Disturb  our  judgment  for  the  hour  ; 
But,  at  last,  silence  comes; 

These  all  are  gone,  and  standing  like  a  tower, 
Our  children  shall  behold  his  fame — 

The  kindly,  earnest,  brave,  foreseeing  man, 
Sagacious,  patient,  dreading  praise,  not  blame ; 

New  birth  of  our  new  soil — the  first  American." 

In  February,  1862,  an  assault  was  made  by  the 
Federal  troops  on  Fort  Henry  in  Tennessee.  This 
was  one  of  the  first  Federal  successes  of  the  war.  At 
that  time  the  gunboats  which  Fremont  had  ordered 
to  be  built  came  into  most  efficient  use.  The  Gov- 
ernment had  refused  to  accept  these  boats :  and  it  is 
said  that  the  contractors,  having  turned  them  over  to 
the  Government,  and  the  Government  not  being 
willing  to  accept  them,  they  lay  three  days  at  the 
Cairo  landing  without  any  owner  at  all.  There  were 
twelve  of  these  armored  gunboats  under  Flag  Officer 
Foote,  which  went  up  the  Tennessee  river  in  order  to 
break  the  Confederate  lines.  The  Confederates  had 
established  a  line  of  posts  across  the  country  to  pre- 
vent the  Union  army  from  getting  down  through 
Kentucky.     General    Grant  commanded   the  Union 


2  06  ANTI-SLA  VER  Y  DA  VS. 

troops,  and  Foote  the  gunboats.  They  captured  Fort 
Henry  in  two  hours,  and  then  attacked  Fort  Donald- 
son, on  the  Cumberland  river.  In  the  last,  20,000 
men  were  in  garrison,  under  Pillow  and  Floyd,  of 
whom  13,500  surrendered  to  Grant.  This  success 
gave  great  confidence  to  the  North,  and  showed  that 
some  of  our  commanders  believed  in  carrying  on  the 
war  in  earnest. 

One  of  the  discouragements  of  the  Northern  people 
was,  that  they  thought  justly  or  otherwise,  that  some 
of  the  generals  in  command  had  no  faith  in  the  war; 
no  expectation  of  success  ;  no  sympathy  with  the 
cause  for  which  they  fought.  The  Northern  people 
gave  their  lives  and  their  fortunes  for  union  and 
freedom,  and  it  was  a  bitter  thought  that  those  in 
command  sometimes  were  not  in  earnest  in  this  great 
cause. 

But,  however  that  might  be  with  the  army,  no  one 
doubted  the  devoted  courage  and  chivalry  of  the 
naval  commanders.  With  what  science  and  what 
calm  skill  did  the  Union  fleet  steam  past  the  forts  at 
Hilton  Head,  silencing  their  batteries,  and  putting  the 
United  States  in  possession  of  the  sea-islands  of 
Georgia  and  South  Carolina.  How  thrilling  was  the 
description  of  the  passage  by  Farragut,  of  the  Con- 
federate forts  on  the  Mississippi,  which  resulted  in  the 
taking  of  New  Orleans  ;  and  his  daring  entrance  into 
Mobile  harbor,  in  spite  of  forts,  ships  and  torpedoes  ! 


ANTI-SLA  VER  Y  DA  YS. 


207 


The  defences  of  New  Orleans  consisted  of  a  fort 
on  each  side  the  river,  together  with  a  heavy  boom 
across  the  stream,  bound  with  chains  and  anchored  ; 
a  fleet  of  war  steamers  behind  it,  together  with  five 
ships.  This  defence  was  thought  to  make  the  city 
impregnable.  The  attack  on  the  forts  began  with 
Porter's  mortar  fleet  of  21  schooners,  each  carrying  a 
mortar  which  threw  a  shell  weighing  two  hundred 
pounds.  With  these,  Admiral  Porter  bombarded 
Forts  Philip  and  Jackson,  during  six  days.  Then 
Farragut,  on  the  night  of  April  23d,  1862,  ran  past 
them  with  his  fleet  of  eighteen  vessels,  and  broke  the 
boom.  Having  passed  the  forts  he  encountered  the 
Confederate  vessels.  The  Cayuga  was  attacked  by 
sixteen,  and  though  struck  forty-two  times,  took  three 
of  them.  The  Varuna  drove  three  ashore,  and  sank 
a  fourth,  and  then  ran  ashore  herself  and  sank.  In 
an  hour  and  a  half  the  forts  were  passed,  and  the 
Confederate  fleet  taken  or  sunk.  New  Orleans  then 
surrendered  to  General  Butler  and  the  Union  army. 

How  exciting  was  the  account  of  the  battle  between 
the  Merrimac  and  the  Monitor.  The  United  States 
war-ship  Merrimac,  taken  by  the  Confederates  at  Nor- 
folk, had  been  turned  by  them  into  a  great  iron-clad. 
At  that  time  little  was  known  of  the  power  of  iron- 
clad vessels.  The  Merrimac  was  the  first  floating 
steam  battery  ;  and  it  demonstrated  that  a  new  ele- 


2  08  A  NT  IS  LA  VER  Y  DA  VS. 

ment  had  appeared  in  naval  warfare.  It  bad  been  for 
some  time  rumored  that  she  was  in  preparation.  On 
March  8th,  1862,  she  was  seen  moving  down  the  James 
river,  looking  like  a  black  ark  of  iron.  She  approached 
the  United  States  vessels  lying  in  the  bay.  The 
Merrimac  ran  at  the  United  States  frigate  Cumber- 
land, and  rammed  it  with  its  powerful  beak,  and  with  a 
tremendous  blow  laid  open  half  the  side  of  the  vessel, 
which,  with  all  aboard,  and  with  her  flag  flying,  went 
down,  in  54  feet  of  water.* 

The  Merrimac  then  destroyed  the  United  States 
frigate  Congress  in  a  few  minutes,  notwithstanding 
the  repeated  broadsides  poured  at  the  ironclad  from 
its  heavy  batteries.  The  shot  glanced  off  harmless 
from  her  iron  roof,  like  hail  from  a  housetop.  Having 
accomplished  so  easily  the  destruction  of  two  of  the 
best  war  vessels  of  the  Union,  the  Confederate  iron- 
clad turned  to  another.  The  Minnesota,  the  most 
powerful  vessel  in  the  service,  was  lying  at  anchor,  or 
aground,  when  the  Confederate  went  to  attack  her. 
One  or  two  broadsides  were  delivered  on  either  side, 
when  the  commanding  officer  of  the  Confederate 
vessel,  fearing  to  get  aground  himself,  turned  and  went 
back  to  Norfolk. 

All  that  night  the  telegrams  sent  the  terrible  news 
through  the  North.    This  impregnable  vessel  would,  no 

*  In  1^54,  on  my  way  to  Grant's  headquarters,  I  saw  the  topmast 
still  out  of  water. 


ANTI-SLA  VERY  DA  VS. 


209 


doubt,  return  the  next  day,  and  easily  destroy  the 
Minnesota.  What  then  ?  Why  should  she  not,  after 
taking  Fortress  Monroe,  enter  any  of  our  harbors, 
and  demolish,  or  capture,  New  York  or  Boston.  The 
wildest  apprehension  prevailed  wherever  the  news 
went.  But  a  power  had  been  providentially  prepared 
to  put  an  end  to  her  career  of  terror. 

Mr.  Erricson,  an  eminent  engineer  and  inventor, 
had  foreseen  with  the  intuition  of  genius,  the  change 
which  must  take  place  in  naval  warfare  in  consequence 
of  the  introduction  of  ironclads.  At  his  own  expense, 
and  with  only  partial  encouragement  from  the  United 
States  Government,  he  had  built  a  small  vessel,  show, 
ing  little  surface  above  the  water,  plated  heavily,  and 
with  a  revolving  tower  of  iron,  containing  one  heavy 
gun.  This  vessel,  the  existence  of  which  was  scarcely 
known,  had  just  been  finished,  and  was  towed  round 
by  a  steamer  to  Fortress  Monroe.  Once  or  twice  on 
the  passage,  she  came  near  being  lost.  But  she  ar- 
rived in  time.  When  the  Merrimac  came  down  the 
river  the  next  morning  to  complete  her  work  of  de- 
struction, this  little  machine  which  looked  like  a  large 
cheese-box  on  the  water,  interposed,  and  pounded 
away  with  her  heavy  balls  at  every  open  porthole. 
She  was  too  alert  for  her  massive  opponent,  and  finally 
drove  it  back  to  Norfolk,  from  which  it  never  came 
out  again. 

This  battle  revolutionized  naval  warfare  throughout 


2 1  o  ANTI-SLA  VER  Y  DA  VS. 

the  world.  Wooden  ships  were  made  useless,  and 
England,  France,  and  other  countries,  began  to  build 
ironclads. 

/  January  I,  1863,  came  the  proclamation  of  President 
Lincoln,  which  declared  the  slaves  in  all  the  rebel 
states  to  be  free.  That  was  what  the  Northern  people 
had  been  longing  for,  and  hoping,  but  were  by  no 
means  sure  it  would  ever  come.  I  Long  ago,  when  John 
Quincy  Adams  stood  alone  in  Congress,  and  when  it 
was  said  that  under  no  circumstance  could  the  United 
States  Government  abolish  slavery,  he  replied,  "  I 
don't  agree  to  that.  There  is  one  state  of  things  in 
which  slavery  can  be  abolished  in  this  government. 
If  there  should  be  an  insurrection  or  rebellion  in  the 
United  States,  it  would  be  competent  for  the  war- 
power  in  the  hands  of  the  President  or  even  of  any 
General  in  command,  to  abolish  slavery."* 

At  this  time  the  plan  of  enlisting  regiments  of  col- 
ored troops  was  begun,  chiefly  by  the  urgent  efforts 
of  Governor  Andrew  of  Massachusetts. 

John  Albion  Andrew  has  been  called,  and  justly 
the  great  war  governor.  We  may  also  apply  to  him 
the  words  said  of  William  Pitt.  He  was  "  the  pilot 
that  weathered  the  storm."  A  lawyer  in  Boston, 
working  hard   in   his    profession,  few  persons   were 

*  The  abolitionists,  whom  nothing  escaped  which  bore  on  the  sub- 
ject of  slavery,  published  a  tract  at  the  time,  containing  extracts  from 
these  declarations  of  J.  Q.  Adams,  concerning  the  constitutional  right 
of  the  war-power  to  abolish  slavery. 


ANT/SLA  VER  Y  DAYS.  2 1 1 

aware  of  his  great  abilities  until  he  was  chosen  gov- 
ernor of  Massachusetts  in  1861.  He  had  been  de- 
voted and  consistent  in  his  anti-slavery  principles 
from  his  youth.  Fearless  in  doing  and  saying  what- 
ever he  believed  right,  he  was  wise,  kindly  and  toler- 
ant of  differences  of  opinion  ;  though  with  a  power  of 
indignation  which,  when  roused,  swept  everything  be- 
fore it.  He  was  one  of  the  best  tempered  men  I  ever 
knew.  His  sagacity  was  like  intuition.  He  had  an 
immense  working  power,  and  in  his  office  at  the  State 
House  would  tire  out  all  his  clerks  and  amanuenses, 
and  then  send  them  home,  and  continue  working 
alone  till  late  at  night.  His  influence  at  Washing- 
ton was  great,  and  he  used  it  to  urge  forward  all 
means  of  putting  down  the  rebellion.  He  was  in 
constant  communication  with  Lincoln,  Stanton,  Sew- 
ard, Chase,  the  governors  of  the  Northern  States,  and 
the  Senators  and  Representatives  of  Massachusetts. 
On  the  very  day  of  his  inauguration  as  governor, 
January  1st,  1861,  three  months  before  the  attack  on 
Sumter,  he  sent  messages  to  the  governors  of  each  of 
the  New  England  States,  assuring  them  that  war  was 
imminent,  and  that  they  had  best  begin  at  once  to 
prepare  font.  He  himself  put  Massachusetts  in  such 
a  state  of  readiness,  that  as  soon  as  Lincoln's  war- 
proclamation  was  issued,  April  15th,  he  called  out 
four  regiments  to  go  to  Washington,  and  they  were 
assembled  the  next  day,  April   16th,  on  Boston  Com- 


212  A  .VTI-SLA  VER  V  DA  VS. 

mon,  every  company  full.  The  Sixth  regiment  left 
for  Washington  that  evening,  passed  through  Balti- 
more, where  some  of  its  number  were  killed  by  the 
mob,  and  was  the  first  full  regiment  that  reached 
Washington.  During  the  war  Governor  Andrew  was 
untiring,  using  his  own  private  means  when  neces- 
sary, for  public  objects,  and  died  leaving  to  his  family 
as  their  inheritance  his  great  reputation  and  noble 
character. ;  As  soon  as  the  war  was  over  he  urged  rec- 
onciliation and  reunion.  "  After  a  vigorous  prosecu* 
tion  of  the  war,"  said  he,  in  his  farewell  address,  "  let 
us  now  devote  ourselves  to  a  vigorous  prosecution  of 
peace."* 

*The  following  passages  are  from  an  article  in  a  journal  reviewing 
Gen.  Schouler's  "  History  of  Massachusetts  in  the  Civil  War." 

On  the  fifth  of  January,  1861,  John  Albion  Andrew  entered  on  his 
duties  as  Governor  of  Massachusetts  His  apprehension  of  the  ap- 
proaching conflict  were  clearly  shown  in  his  inaugural  speech.  That 
very  night  he  forwarded  to  each  of  the  other  five  New  England  Gov- 
ernors letters  confidential,  in  which  he  urged  the  necessity  of  prepara- 
tion for  the  crisis  he  so  clearly  saw  impending.  The  next  day  a  gen- 
eral order  required  that  national  salutes  should  be  fired  in  the  large 
towns,  on  the  approaching  eighth  of  January,  to  commemorate  not 
only  the  great  victory  of  New  Orleans,  but  also  ajor  Anderson's 
"  gallant  conduct  and  wise  foresight '  in  taking  possession  of  Fort 
Sumter  Eight  days  latei  came  General  Order  No.  4,  calling  for  ex- 
act returns  of  all  the  volunteer  militia,  requiring  that  every  company 
should  be  full,  and  that  none  should  be  kept  on  the  rolls  who  could 
not,  or  who  would  not,  respond  tc  any  call  that  might  come  for  active 
service.  On  the  first  of  February  the  legislature  put  at  the  Gover- 
nor's disposal  an  "  emergency  fund  "  of  one  hundred  thousand  dol- 
lars, It  also  appropriated  twenty-five  thousand  dollars  to  provide 
overcoats  and  equipage  for  two  thousand  men,  and  authorized  the 
Governor  to  organize  as  many  companies  and  regiments  as  the  public 
exigency  might  require.      Accordingly,  earnest  efforts  were  made  to 


AATT/-SLA VER Y  DAYS.  213 

Always   a   friend  of  the  colored  people,  Governor 
Andrew  was  unwearied  in  urging  on  the  government 

strengthen  the  militia;  the  overcoats  were  procured;  a  wide  corre- 
spondence was  kept  up ;  a  cipher  for  secret  messages  was  devised  ;  the 
condition  of  the  seaboard  forts  was  scrutinized,  and  the  quickest, 
safest  route  for  troops  to  Washington  was  carefully  considered.  No 
pains  were  spared  in  obtaining  constant  and  reliable  information  from 
the  seat  of  government. 

Thus,  for  four  anxious  months,  things  went  on  amid  alternating 
hopes  and  fears,  and  then  came  Sumter.  On  the  15th  of  April  a  mes- 
sage by  the  wire  called  on  Governor  Andrew  to  send  two  regiments  to 
Washington.  Four  colonels,  namely,  Wardrop,  Packard,  Jones  and 
Monroe,  were  instantly  ordered  to  muster  their  regiments  on  Boston 
Common.  On  the  morning  of  the  16th  the  troops  began  to  come  in — 
three  companies  from  Marblehead  being  first  on  the  ground.  In  the 
evening  of  the  same  day  the  Sixth  Regiment  (Colonel  Jones)  left  Bos- 
ton by  rail.  At  the  same  hour  on  the  17th  the  Third  Regiment 
(Colonel  Wardrop)  embarked  for  Fortress  Monroe  and  almost  simul- 
taneously the  Fourth  Regiment  (Colonel  Packard,'  "having  the  same 
destination,  started  on  the  Old  Colony  Railroad.  The  Eighth  Regi- 
ment (Colonel  Monroe),  after  two  days'  detention  in  Boston,  left  on 
the  18th  by  the  Worcester  road,  accompanied  by  General  Butler,  who 
had  been  appointed  to  command  the  brigade.  On  Saturday,  the  20th, 
the  Third  Battalion  of  Rifles  (Major  Devens)  took  the  cars  at  Wor- 
cester for  the  South,  and  the  next  morning  the  Fifth  Regiment  (Col- 
onel Lawrence)  started  on  the  same  road  from  the  station  in  Boston. 
With  them  went  also  Major  Cook's  Light  Battery,  with  seventy  horses 
and  six  brass  six-pounders.  Of  the  regiments  thus  forwarded  during 
that  memorable  week,  the  Sixth  Massachusetts  bears  the  high  distinc- 
tion of  being  the  first  to  shed  its  blood  in  the  great  conflict,  and  the 
first  to  enter  Washington. 

Such  was  the  noble  response  of  Massachusetts  when  the  country 
called  on  her  for  help.  And  this  community — be  it  ever  remembered 
— thus  suddenly  fired  with  patriotic  ardor, — these  troops  which  set 
out  so  promptly  for  distant  fields  of  unknown  difficulty  and  danger, 
were  the  peace-loving,  money-getting,  unwarlike  "  Yankees  "  of  the 
North,  of  whom  the  seceding  Southerners  could  speak  only  with  con- 
tempt 

How  strange  it  seems  that  the  generous  ardor  and  willing  service 
of  Massachusetts  in  that  perilous  crisis  of  the  nation  should  meet  with 


2 1 4  ANTI-SLA  VER  Y  DA  YS. 

the  employment  of  colored  troops.  At  last  he  was 
permitted  to  raise  them,  and  send  them  to  the  front 
as  part  of  the  Massachusetts  quota. 

After  many  defeats  of  the  Army  of  the  Potomac, 
under  McLellan,  Pope,  Burnside  and  Hooker,  it  was 
at  last  victorious  at  Gettysburg,  under  General  Meade, 
July  ist,  1863  ;  and  on  July  4th,  Vicksburg  was  sur- 
rendered to  General  Grant.  The  Mississippi  was 
thus  opened  through  its  entire  course  to  New 
Orleans. 

May  6th,  1864,  General  Sherman  commenced  his 
"  march  to  the  sea."  By  a  series  of  skilful  manoeuvres, 
he  had  passed  round  the  army  of  Johnson,  who  was 
then  relieved  by  order  of  Jefferson  Davis.  Hood  was 
placed  in  command  of  the  Confederate  army  opposed 
to  Sherman,  he  being  believed  to  be  more  of  a  fight- 
ing man.  But  he  proved  unable  to  stop  the  progress 
of  General  Sherman,  who  sent  back  whatever  he  did 
not  need  by  General  Thomas,  who  was  left  to    resist 

anything  but  a  cordial  welcome  at  the  seat  of  government!  Early  in 
May,  1861,  ten  thousand  Massachusetts  men  had  organized  in  com- 
panies, and  were  ready,  even  anxious,  to  enlist  for  the  three  years' 
service.  Governor  Andrew  offered  them  to  the  War  Department, 
and  in  repeated  messages  urged  that  they  should  be  accepted.  Days, 
weeks  even,  passed  without  a  word  of  reply  from  the  War  Office.  It 
was  not  till  the  22d  of  May  that  a  frigid  answer  came  from  Secretary 
Cameron,  consenting  that  Massachusetts  should  send  six  regiments, 
but  strongly  hinting  that  there  was  no  need  of  so  many.  How  Gover- 
nor Andrew  felt  in  view  of  this  strange  coldness  and  neglect, — this 
evident  failure  to  appreciate  the  magnitude  and  the  dangers  of  the 
situation, — very  clearly  appears  in  his  admirable  letter  to  Montgomery 
Blair. 


A NTI-SLA  VER Y  DA  YS.  2i$ 

Hood.  Sherman  with  the  rest  of  his  force  marched 
into  the  heart  of  Georgia,  cutting  loose  from  his  base 
of  supplies,  and  disappearing  from  the  knowledge  of 
the  Northern  people,  who  did  not  hear  for  a  long  time 
anything  about  his  movements.  He  had  made  up  his 
mind  that  he  could  march  through  Georgia,  although 
such  a  great  army  had  perhaps  never  before  been 
turned  into  a  detached  corps.  He  was  satisfied  that 
he  could  supply  his  troops  from  the  country,  and  he 
succeeded.  It  was  predicted  that  they  would  be  de- 
stroyed, but  they  had  an  easy  and  cheerful  march, 
though  the  Southern  journals  kept  sending  word  that 
we  should  never  hear  of  Sherman  or  his  army  again. 
Sherman  went  on,  without  difficulty,  till,  reaching  the 
sea,  he  took  Savannah,  and  caused  the  fall  of  Charles- 
ton. He  then  marched  through  South  Carolina 
and  North  Carolina,  till  he  was  able  to  co-operate 
with  Grant  before  Richmond. 

Finally,  Lee  was  defeated  by  utter  exhaustion,  after 
making  a  grand  military  resistance  during  many  years, 
and  showing  all  the  qualities  of  a  great  general.  Gen 
eral  Grant's  persistency  and  ability  at  last  was 
crowned  with  success,  and  so  ended  this  war  of 
giants. 

Then  came  the  assassination  of  Lincoln,  and  the 
long  period  of  reconstruction,  in  which  a  great  many 
difficult  problems  were  to  be  solved.     One  by  one  the 


2  !  6  A  NTI-SLA  VER  Y  DAYS. 

Southern  States  were  re-admitted  into  the  Union,  on 
the  condition  of  abolishing  slavery. 


/  Looking  back  now  we  can  easily  see  how  many 
things  which  seemed  very  sad  and  mysterious  at  the 
time,  were  in  reality  blessings  in  disguise.  All  can 
now  understand  what  a  blessing  it  was  that  the  North 
had  been  taught,  in  its  schools  and  churches,  and  by 
its  two  great  parties,  the  value  of  the  Union.  We  can 
also  recognize  a  providence  in  having  Lincoln  for  a 
President.  But  it  was  also  providential  that  the  South 
at  first  had  better  success  in  the  war  than  the  North- 
ern armies.  It  has  been  often  said,  and  said  truly, 
that  if  we  had  won  victories  at  the  beginning  of  the 
!  war,  there  would  have  been  a  compromise,  which 
\  would  have  allowed  slavery  to  continue.  Our  early 
disasters  were  an  advantage  in  another  way.  If  we 
had  had  great  successes  at  first,  and  if  the  Southern 
armies  had  been  defeated,  they  would  have  been  scat- 
tered through  the  South,  and  we  might  have  had  to 
carry  on  a  long  guerilla  warfare.  How  difficult  that 
would  have  been,  we  know  by  the  experience  of  Napo- 
leon in  his  attempt  to  conquer  Spain,  which  he  could 
not  do  with  an  army  of  veterans  of  three  hundred 
thousand  men,  under  his  best  generals.  It  was  an 
advantage  to  the  North  that  the  South  possessed  such 


ANTI-SLA  VER  Y  DA  VS.  2 1 7 

a  splendid  general  in  Lee.  They  had  such  confidence 
in  him  that  they  put  all  their  men  into  his  hands,  till, 
when  he  and  his  army  were  destroyed,  there  were 
none  left  to  make  any  further  resistance. 

It  was  good  for  us  that  we  were  forced,  almost 
against  our  will,  to  use  negro  troops.  We  did  it  re- 
luctantly, but  we  found  they  fought  nobly.  They 
were  braver  even  than  the  white  troops,  for  they  / 
fought  often  with  a  halter  around  their  necks.  They 
knew  that  the  slaveholders  would  give  them  no  quar- 
ter if  they  were  taken  prisoners.  Still,  while  we  paid 
the  white  troops  thirteen  dollars  a  month  and  cloth- 
ing, the  colored  troops  received  only  ten  dollars,  and 
out  of  that  they  paid  about  three  dollars  for  clothing, 
leaving  only  seven  dollars,  instead  of  thirteen,  for 
their  pay  Gov.  Andrew  felt  great  indignation  at  this 
unjust  discrimination  on  account  of  color.  He  once 
showed  me  a  letter  he  had  just  written  to  the  Massa- 
chusetts Senators,  m  which  he  requested  them  to 
urge  upon  Congress  and  the  President  the  great  in- 
justice done  in  not  having  the  colored  troops  on  an  / 
equality  with  the  white.  "  I  will  not  rest,"  said  he, 
in  conclusion,  "  until  this  injustice  is  removed.  I  will 
not  allow  you  any  rest  until  it  is  removed.  I  will  not 
die  till  I  have  seen  justice  done ;  or,  if  I  should  die, 
and  should  I  have  any  standing  in  the  other  world,  I 
will  pursue  the  matter  there  before  the  throne  of  In- 
finite   Justice."     I    told    Governor    Andrew    that    I 


f 


2 18  ANTI-SLA  VER  Y  DA  VS. 

was  going  to  Washington,  and  that  I  would 
take  the  letter  to  Mr.  Sumner  and  Mr  Wilson, 
and  try  to  see  the  Attorney-General.  I  was  to 
preach  in  the  House  of  Representatives  the  fol- 
lowing Sunday,  and  I  took  occasion  to  describe  in 
my  sermon  the  character  and  conduct  of  those  colored 
troops.  I  told  how  the  Massachusetts  legislature  had 
voted  that  money  should  be  taken  to  the  colored  regi- 
ments in  South  Carolina,  so  as  to  make  up  the  full 
amount  to  the  men  for  all  the  time  they  had  been  in 
the  service.  These  troops  had  steadily  refused  to 
accept  the  ten  dollars,  and  had  gone  without  pay  for 
some  time.  The  agents  of  Massachusetts  who  carried 
the  money  explained  to  the  troops  that  the  State  of 
Massachusetts,  unwilling  that  they  should  serve  with- 
out full  pay,  had  sent  this  money  as  justly  due  to 
them.  They  were  to  add  that  Governor  Andrew  was 
anxious  that  they  should  accept  it.  This  was  done, 
and  after  the  soldiers  had  consulted  among  them- 
selves, one  was  appointed  to  reply.  He  said  they 
were  much  obliged  to  the  State  of  Massachusetts,  to 
Governor  Andrew,  and  to  the  gentlemen  who  had 
come  there  to  bring  the  money,  but  they  did  not  con- 
sider themselves  as  the  troops  of  Massachusetts. 
They  were  now  United  States  soldiers,  and  they 
would  not  take  any  money,  not  even  the  ten  dollars 
offered  by  Government,  though  their  families  were 
suffering  for  it,  until  they  could  have  what  was  justly 


ANTI-SLA  VER  Y  DA  YS.  2  r  g 

their  due  ;  meantime,  they  meant  to  do  their  duty 
just  as  well  as  if  paid.  When  I  had  told  that  story,  I 
said  to  the  members  of  Congress  before  me  : — "  If 
this  had  been  done  by  Greeks  or  Romans,  an  account 
of  it  would  have  been  put  into  all  our  schoolbooks, 
and  our  children  would  have  been  taught  to  read  it  as 
an  example  of  heroism.  But  as  it  is  only  done  by 
colored  people,  we  do  not  think  much  of  it.  Never- 
theless in  the  sight  of  humanity  and  of  history,  I  had 
rather  be  one  of  those  colored  soldiers,  doing  my  duty 
as  a  man,  and  refusing  this  money  till  I  could  get  jus- 
tice with  it,  than  a  member  of  Congress,  receiving  my 
pay  regularly,  and  sitting  in  my  comfortable  seat,  and; 
not  able  to  muster  courage  to  pass  a  law  to  pay  those 
soldiers  their  just  debt."  When  I  said  that  I  sup- 
posed they  would  be  displeased ;  but  instead  of  that 
they  applauded. 

Who  that  was  not  then  living  can  tell  how,  when 
peace  came,  the  very  air  seemed  full  of  joy,  hope  and 
content !  This  feeling  of  the  joy  of  returning  peace, 
of  re-established  union,  of  the  end  of  the  great  evil  and 
danger  of  the  nation,  filled  all  hearts  with  a  grateful 
sense  of  the  Divine  love.  This  was  best  expressed 
by  Whittier  in  one  of  his  fine  lyrics,  of  which  the  fol- 
lowing stanzas  are  a  part : — 

It  is  done ! 
Clang  of  bell  and  roar  of  gun 
Send  the  tidings  up  and  down. 


2  2  O  ANTI-SLA  VER  Y  DA  VS. 

How  the  belfries  rock  and  reel ! 
How  the  great  guns  peal  on  peal, 
Fling  the  joy  from  town  to  town  1 

Let  us  kneel : 

God's  own  voice  is  in  that  peal, 
And  this  spot  is  holy  ground. 

Lord,  forgive  us  !     What  are  we, 

That  our  eyes  this  glory  see, 
That  our  ears  have  heard  the  sound! 

Did  we  dare, 

In  our  agony  of  prayer, 
Ask  for  more  than  He  has  done  ? 

When  was  ever  his  right  hand 

Over  any  time  or  land 
Stretched  as  now  beneath  the  sun? 

No  description  can  convey  the  sense  of  gratitude 
and  gladness  which  we  had,  not  only  because  peace 
had  come  and  our  sufferings  and  trials  were  at  an 
end,  but  because  peace  brought  freedom  and  union  ; 
because  the  country  was  once  more  to  be  united,  and 
without  the  blot  of  slavery  existing  in  it.  Slavery 
was  ended  !  The  great  danger  and  evil  was  gone  ; 
and  the  South  itself  in  a  little  while  was  glad  that  it 
was  gone.  A  few  years  after  the  war  was  over  I 
went  to  the  Sea  Islands  of  South  Carolina,  to  Char- 
leston, and  Savannah,  and  I  found  scarcely  a  man 
even  then  who  did  not  admit  that  it  was  the  best 
thing  for  the  Southern  States  to  have  slavery  abol- 
ished.    Though  they  suffered  so  much  in  the  process, 


ANTI-SLA  VEK  Y  DAYS.  221 

they  would  not  have  it  back.  They  admitted  that  the 
colored  people  were  working  well,  and  making  great 
progress.  It  is  not  too  much  to  say  that  there  is  not 
one  sensible  man  in  a  thousand  who  would  have 
slavery  back.  Last  winter  I  was  told  by  a  Boston 
gentleman  that  he  had  a  conversation  with  two  grand- 
sons of  Calhoun,  who  was  the  embodiment  of  the  pro- 
slavery  theory.  He  asked  how  many  sensible  people 
would  be  glad  to  see  slavery  re-established.  One  re- 
plied, "  Not  a  man  in  a  hundred,"  and  the  other  said, 
"  Not  one  in  a  thousand."  "  Well,"  asked  my 
informant,  "what  would  your  grandfather  have  said 
to  that  ?  "  "  If  our  grandfather  were  now  living  he 
would  say  the  same  thing,"  was  the  reply, 

Before  the  civil  war,  the  cotton  crop  of  the  whole 
South  amounted  to  some  four  millions  of  bales.  Last 
year  the  cotton  crop  was  seven  million  bales.  That  is 
the  best  possible  proof  of  two  important  facts  in  re- 
gard to  the  progress  of  the  colored  people.  Since  the  , 
land  in  the  cotton-growing  States  belongs  mostly  to 
the  white  people,  and  the  labor  mostly  to  the  colored 
people,  the  great  production  of  cgitefi  shows,  first, 
that  the  colored  people -si'^trWorking  better  than  they 
did  as  slaves,  and  secondly,  that  the  whites  and  colored 
people  are  working  together  in  peaceful  relations. 

The  colored  people  also  feel  the  need  of  getting  an     J 
education.     Every  opportunity  they  have  for  going  to 
school  they  eagerly  seize.     Old  and  young  go  to  school. 


222  A  NTI-SLA  VER  Y  DA  YS. 

Those  who  think  themselves  too  old  to  learn,  are 
grateful  that  their  children  can  learn.  I  remember 
being  told  by  a  lady,  who  has  been  a  teacher  of  the 
colored  people  in  Port  Royal,  South  Carolina,  ever 
since  it  fell  into  the  hands  of  our  troops,  that  she  one 
day  saw  an  old  colored  woman  kneeling  by  the  side  of 
the  schoolhouse.  "  Why,  mammy,"  she  asked,  "what 
are  you  doing  there  ?  "  "  Oh,  missis,  I'm  too  old  for 
laming  myself,  but  I  was  just  thanking  the  good  Lord 
that  my  little  children  in  there  can  have  their  lam- 
ing." 

According  to  the  last  census,  of  the  4,600,000  colored 
people  of  ten  years  old  and  upward,  1,400,000  (or  about 
30  per  cent.)  have  learned  to  read  and  write.  There 
have  been  two  colored  men  in  the  United  States 
Senate,  and  several  in  the  different  departments  of 
government,  and  many  in  the  legislatures  of  all  the 
States.  Frederick  Douglass,  who  once  escaped  from 
the  hands  of  the  United  States  marshal  of  the  Dis- 
trict of  Columbia,  has  since  been  the  United  States 
marshal  in  the  same  District. 

In  every  way  we  have  reason  to  be  thankful  for  the 
[great  progress  made  throughout  the  whole  Southern 
icountry  both  by  the  whites  and  the  colored  people. 

Although  slavery  was  virtually  destroyed  by  the 
proclamation  of  Lincoln,  it  was  legally  ended  only 
when  the  following  amendments  became  part  of  the 
Constitution  of  the  United  States. 


AM    -SLAVERY 


223 


The  thirteenth  amendment  is  as  follows  : — 

Article  XIV. — Section  1. — Neither  slavery  nor 
involuntary  servitude,  except  as  a  punishment  for 
crime,  whereof  the  party  shall  have  been  duly  convict- 
ed, shall  exist  within  the  United  States,  or  any  place 
subject  to  their  jurisdiction. 

The  fourteenth  amendment  defines  who  are  citizens, 
to  be  equally  protected  in  all  the  States. 
The  fifteenth  amendment  is  this  : — 

Article  XV. — Section  1. — The  right  of  citizens 
of  the  United  States  to  vote  shall  not  be  denied  or 
abridged  by  the  United  States,  or  by  any  State,  on 
account  of  race,  color,  or  previous  condition  of  servi- 
tude. 

The  proclamation  of  Lincoln  was  the  corner-stone  ; 
these  amendments  to  the  Constitution  were  the  key- 
stone of  the  arch  of  Liberty. 

In  view  of  these  great  results  of  the  struggle  I  have 
thus  briefly  described,  we  can  well  adopt  the  language 
of  Lowell's  commemoration  poem,  the  finest  English 
ode,  perhaps,  since  Wordsworth's  Ode  to  Immortality, 
to  express  a  nation's  joy  in  the  coming  of  universal 
freedom,  and  the  creation  of  a  better  union  in  our 
land. 

k<  Boom,  cannon,  boom,  to  all  the  hills  and  waves ! 
Clash  out  glad  bells  from  every  rocking  steeple  ! 
Banners,  advance  in  triumph  !  bend  your  staves ! 
And  from  every  mountain  peak, 
Let  beacon  fires  to  answering  beacons  speak, 
Katahdin  tell  Monadnock,  Whiteface  he, 


224 


ANTI-SLAVERY  DA  YS. 

And  so  leap  on  in  light  from  sea  to  sea, 

Making  the  earth  more  firm  and  the  air  breathe  braver. 

Be  proud,  for  she  is  saved,  and  all  have  helped  to  save  her, 

She.  that  lifts  up  the  manhood  of  the  poor, 

She  of  the  open  soul  and  open  door, 

With  room  about  her  hearth  for  all  mankind  ! 

The  fire  is  dreadful  in  her  eyes  no  more  ; 

From  her  bold  front  the  helm  she  doth  unbind, 

Sends  all  her  handmaid  armies  back  to  spin, 

And  bids  her  navies  that  so  lately  hurled 

Their  crashing  battle,  hold  their  thunders  in, 

Swimming,  like  birds  of  calm,  along  the  unharmful  shore. 

No  challenge  sends  she  to  the  elder  world, 

That  looked  askance  and  hated ;  a  light  scorn 

Plays  o'er  her  mouth,  as  round  her  mighty  knees 

She  calls  her  children  back,  and  waits  the  morn 

Of  nobler  day  enthroned  between  her  subject  seas." 


YC  3VI22 


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14  DAY  USE 

^ICH  BORROW* 


14  DAY  USE 

RETURN  TO  DESK  FROM  WHICH  BORROWED 

LOAN  DEPT. 

This  book  is  due  on  the  last  date  stamped  below,  or 
on  the  date  to  which  renewed. 
Renewed  books  are  subject  toil 


MAR  1  0  2002 


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